6VTHE UFEyS 
BEYOND DEATH 



By Yogi Ramacharaka 



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The Life Beyond 
Death 

BY 

YOGI RAMACHARAKA 



"THAT WHICH WE CALL DEATH IS BUT 
THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE'* 



1912 
YOGI PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

168 N. MICHIGAN AVENUE 

CHICAGO. ILL. 



.M7 



COPYRIGHT, 

1912 

YOGI PUBLICATION SOCIETY 



©CI.A330839 



3 

t>^ 



|53 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Other Side 7 

II There is no Death 16 

III The Planes of Life 25 

IV The Astral Plane 34 

V After Death 43 

VI The Soiil-Slumber 52 

VII The Soul's Awakening 61 

VIII Astral Plane Geography 70 

IX Primitive Soul States 79 

X Astral Religious Experiences 88 

XI Astral Heavens and Hells 97 

XII Astral Self-Bxpression 107 

XIII Astral Plane Occupation 116 

XIV Astral Companionship 125 

-. XV Spirit Communication 134 

XVI Earth-Bound Souls 143 

XVII Astral Shells 153 

XVIII The Second Soul-Sleep 162 

XIX Re-Birth 171 

XX Beyond Reincarnation 180 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
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http://www.archive.org/details/lifebeyonddeathOOrama 



CHAPTER I 
**THE OTHER Sn)E'' 

One of the questions most frequently asked 
the teachers of the Wisdom of the East is 
this: **What do you teach regarding Hhe 
other side' of the river of death T' To the 
trained and developed occultist, this ques- 
tion never seems to lose its strangeness. To 
such, it would seem as the question: **What 
do you teach regarding the * other side' of the 
street?'* would seem to the ordinary man on 
the street. The latter would naturally feel 
surprised that there should be any question 
of ''teaching" on the subject, for the inquirer 
would have but to use his own eyes to obtain 
the answer to his query. 

The Oriental teacher never fails to wonder 
at the many evidences of the result of mere 
theory and dogmatic teaching on the part of 
the majority of the teachers and preachers of 
the Western world. These so-called teachers 
are like the ''blind leading the blind," for 
they have no means of verifying their state- 

7 



8 The Life Beyond Death 

ments, and merely pass on what they have 
blindly received from others, who, in turn, 
have received their own instruction in the 
same way. In the Orient, on the contrary, 
one meets with so many persons of devel- 
oped higher psychic and spiritual sense, to 
whom the phenomena of **the other side'' is 
as familiar as is the phenomena of ^^this 
side,'* that the ** other side'' seems as real 
and actual as does the ordinary environment 
of earth-life. Among developed Orientals 
**the other side" is no uncharted sea, but has 
its currents, depths, islands, and general 
facts as clearly stated and understood as is 
the Atlantic Ocean by the Western mariner. 
Moreover, every educated Oriental is taught 
from youth that the phenomena of **the other 
side ' ' need not be taken on faith, but may be 
actually known to those who will expend the 
time and study required for developing the 
higher senses which are possessed by all of 
the race. 

But, from the same reasons, the developed 
Oriental occultist finds himself confronted 
with a most perplexing, not to say discour- 
aging task when he attempts to convey his 
knowledge on this subject to Western stu- 



The Other Side 9 

dents. The Western mind instinctively re- 
fuses to accept truth in the manner of the 
mind of the Oriental student. Not having 
realized hy actual experience certain funda- 
mental psychic and spiritual facts, which 
serve as a basis for the detailed teaching, 
the Western mind naturally demands * * actual 
proof of these basic facts before being will- 
ing to proceed further. Inasmuch as these 
facts must first be experienced to be known, 
no amount of argument ever serves to bring 
that conviction of truth which should serve as 
the fundamental basis for the detailed teach- 
ing. Consequently by the Western student, the 
general basic statements of the teacher are 
accepted either purely on faith, or else re- 
garded as mere guesses or speculation on the 
part of the teacher. And, as there are thou- 
sands of such gue&ses and speculative 
theories advanced in the Western world, the 
student may well be excused from refusing 
to accept any of them as truth, for, as he often 
argues, **one guess is as good as another." 
in the presentation of the facts of *Hhe 
other side'^ to which the present volume is 
devoted, the student must realize from the 
beginning that there can be no actual physi- 



10 The Life Beyond Death 

cal proof afforded him, in the absence of a 
highly developed state of his higher psychic 
and spiritual senses. In his case, the proof 
demanded is akin to that asked of the blind 
man, who demands proof of scarlet or any 
other color of the article ; or like that asked 
by the deaf man, who demands proof of the 
existence of harmony in music. From the 
very nature of things, the proof cannot be 
afforded in such case. Imagine the attempt 
to explain the sensation of the taste of sugar 
to one who had never experienced the taste 
of anything sweet. How and where could one 
begin? How and where could one proceed! 
So let us understand each other thoroughly, 
teacher, and students. Let us understand 
that the teachings of this book are not offered 
as proof of the phenomena of **the other 
side,*' but merely in the spirit of the traveller 
returned from some new and strange country, 
and who tells the tales of his journeying and 
the sights seen therein. As we said to the 
students of our first lessons, given to the 
Western world nine years ago: **We do not 
mean that the Eastern teachers insist upon 
the pupil blindly accepting every truth that 
is presented to him. On the contrary, they 



The Other Side 11 

instruct the pupil to accept as truth only that 
which he can prove for himself, as no truth is 
truth to one until he can prove it by his own 
experiments. But the student is taught that 
before many truths may be so proven, he must 
develop and unfold. The teacher asks only 
that the student have confidence in him as a 
pointer-out of the way, and he says, in effect, 
to the student: **This is the way; enter upon 
it, and on the path you will find the things of 
which I have taught you ; handle them, weigh 
them, measure them, taste them, and know for 
yourself. When you reach any point of the 
path you will know as much of it as did I or 
any other soul at that particular stage of the 
journey; but until you reach a particular 
point, you must either accept the statements 
of those who have gone before or reject the 
the whole subject at that particular point. 
Accept nothing as final until you have proven 
it ; but if you are wise, you will profit by the 
advice and experience of those who have gone 
before. Every man must learn by experi- 
ence, but men may serve others as pointers 
of the way. At each stage of the journey it 
will be found that those who have progressed 
a little farther on the way, have left signs 



12 The Life Beyond Death 

and marks and gnide-posts for those who 
follow. The wise man will take advantage of 
these signs. I do not ask for blind faith, but 
only for confidence until you are able to 
demonstrate for yourselves the truths I am 
passing on to you, as they were passed on 
to me by those who went before" 

The skeptical Western student may object 
that we o:ffer no ** scientific proofs'' of the 
phenomena of **the other side.*' If by 
** scientific'' he means the proofs of physi- 
cal science, we agree with him. But to the 
advanced occultist, the term ** scientific" has 
a much broader and wider meaning. The 
person who expects to weigh, measure and 
register spiritual things by physical stand- 
ards has nothing but disappointment and 
failure before him, for he will never receive 
the proof he seeks. Physical apparatus is 
intended for physical objects only — the world 
of spiiit has its own set of apparatus, which 
alone is capable of registering its phenomena. 
Therefore we wish the matter clearly under- 
stood by the reader who is undertaking the 
study of this book. No physical proofs are 
offered. There are none such, strictly speak- 
ing, to be found anywhere. Moreover, there 



The Other Side 13 

is no attempt at argument — for there is no 
basis for argmnent between the seers of **the 
other side ' ' and those whose vision is limited 
to the earth-plane. 

But this does not mean that we are offering 
you a mass of irrational statements, and in- 
sisting that you take them on faith. Far from 
this is our intent. For while the reason alone 
can never hope to pierce the veil separating 
the two sides of Life-Death, nevertheless the 
reason, if allowed to follow its own reports 
divested of prejudice and blind adherence to 
teaching, will perceive a certain reasonable- 
ness in a true statement of the facts of the 
unknown — it will seem that the teachings 
square with other accepted facts, and that 
they explain in a reasonable way phenomena 
otherwise unexplainable. In short, the reason 
will seem that the teachings of truth reconcile 
apparently opposing sets of facts, and join 
together many obscure bits of truth which 
one finds accepted by his reason, but which, 
heretofore, he has not been able to place to- 
gether and join in a connected structure of 
mental concept. 

The student is urged to suspend judgment 
until he has read carefully, and then as care- 



14 The Life Beyond Death 

fully considered, what we have to say. Then 
let him re-read, and re-consider the book as 
a whole. Then let him ask himself the honest 
question: **Does not this seem reasonable 
and probable. ' ' If he can do no more than 
to accept it all as a //working hypotheses," 
by all means let him rest satisfied with that 
position — although ta us the term may evoke 
a smile when we realize that the teaching is 
built upon the experience and testimony of 
the wise of the ages. But, if the teaching is 
carefully read and considered, it will prove to 
be regarded as more and more reasonable as 
the years pass by with the individual. Fact 
after fact will be seen to fit into the general 
teaching, and, as older conceptions are dis- 
carded from time to time, these teachings 
will be found to take their place. It is not 
easy to escape from a truth, once it has been 
presented to you. It has a way of itching 
your mental ear, once it has lodged there. For 
behind that ear is a part of you, hidden 
though it may be, by many sheaths, which 
knows — which KNOWS ! Deny it though you 
may, you cannot escape from Truth once its 
seed has been lodged within your conscious- 
ness, for it will draw sustenance from your 



The Other Side 15 

subconsciousness, and will in time sprout and 
put forth leaf and blossom. 

So, after all, it matters little whether or 
not the student can fully grasp the teaching 
at this time. For Time is long, and one has 
all the time there is in which to master the 
lesson. All teachings, at the last^ is but a 
process of seed-sowing. 



CHAPTEE n 

^* THERE IS NO DEATH'' 

The race has been hypnotized with the laea 
of Death. The common usage of the term 
reflects the illusion. We hear those who 
should know better speaking of persons being 
**cut down by the grim reaper;*' **cut off in 
his prime;" **his activities terminated;" **a 
busy life brought to an end;" etc., the idea 
expressed being that the individual had been 
wiped out of existence and reduced to noth- 
ingness. In the Western world this is partic- 
ularly true. Although the dominant religion 
of the West teaches the joys of the ^* here- 
after" in such strong terms that it would 
seem that every believer would welcome the 
transition; although it might well be sup- 
posed that relatives and friends would don 
gay robes and deck themselves with bright 
flowers in token of the passage of the loved 
one to a happier and brighter sphere of ex- 
istence — we see just the opposite manifesta- 
tion. The average person, in spite of his 

16 



''There is no Death'' 17 

faith and creed, seems to dread the approach 
of **the grim reaper," and his friends drape 
themselves in black robes and give every 
other outward token of having forever lost 
the beloved one. In spite of their beliefs, or 
expression of belief, Death has a terror which 
they seemingly cannot overcome. 

To those who have acquired that sense of 
consciousness of the illusion of death, these 
frightful emotions have faded away. To 
them, while they naturally feel the sorrow of 
temporary separation and the loss of com- 
panionship, the loved one is seen to have 
simply passed on to another phase of life, and 
nothing has been lost — nothing has perished. 
There is a centuries '-old Hindu fable, in 
which is told the tale of a caterpillar, who 
feeling the approach of the langour which 
betokened the end of the crawling stage of 
existence and the beginning of the long sleep 
of the chrysalis stage, called his friends 
around him. **It is sad," he said, **to think 
that I must abandon my life, filled with so 
many bright promises of future achievement. 
Cut off by the grim reaper, in my very prime, 
I am an example of the heartlessness of 
Nature. Farewell, good friends, farewell 



18 The Life Beyond Death 

forever. Tomorrow I shall be no more/^ 
And, accompanied by tbe tears and lamenta- 
tions of the friends surrounded his death-bed, 
he passed away. An old caterpillar remarked 
sadly : ^ * Our brother has left us. His fate is 
also ours. One by one we shall be cut down 
by the scythe of the destroyer, like unto the 
grass of the field. By faith we hope to rise 
again, but perhaps this is but the voice in- 
spired by a vain hope. None of us knows any- 
thing positively of another life. Let us mourn 
the common fate of our race.'* Whereupon, 
sadly, they departed. 

The grim irony of this little fable is clearly 
perceived by all of us, and we smile at the 
thought of the ignorance which attended the 
first stage of the transformation of the lowly 
crawling thing into the glorious-hued crea- 
ture, which in time will emerge from the sleep 
of death into a higher form of life. But, 
smile not, friends, at the illusion of the cater- 
pillars — they were but even as you and I. 
For the Hindu story-teller of centuries ago 
has pictured human ignorance and illusion in 
this little fable of the lower forms of life. All 
occultists recognize in the transformation 
stages of the caterpillar-chrysalis-butterfly a 



''There is no Death'' 19 

picture of the transformation wMch awaits 
every mortal man and woman. For death to 
the human being is no more a termination or 
cessation than is the death-sleep of the cater- 
pillar. In neither case does life cease for 
even a single instant — life persists while 
Nature works her changes. We advise every 
student to carry with him the lesson of this 
little fable, told centuries ago to the children 
of the Hindu race, and passed on by them 
from generation to generation. 

Strictly speaking, from the Oriental point 
of view, there is no such thing as Death. The 
name is a lie — the idea an illusion growing 
from ignorance. There is no death — there is 
nothing but Life. Life has many phases and 
forms, and some of the phases are called 
** death ^' by ignorant men. Nothing really 
dies — though everything experiences a 
change of form and activity. As Edwin 
Arnold so beautifully expresse it in his 
translation of the *^Bhagavaad Gita'': 

** Never the spirit was born; 
The spirit shall cease to be never. 
Never was time it was not ; 
End and beginning are dreams. 



20 The Life Beyond Death 

Birthless and deathless, and changeless, 
Eemaineth the spirit forever; 
Death hath not touched it at all, 
Dead though the house of it seems." 

Materialists frequently urge as an argu- 
ment against the persistence of life beyond 
the stage of death, the assumed fact that 
everything in nature suffers death, dissolu- 
tion, and destruction. If such were really the 
fact, then indeed would it be reasonable to 
argue the death of the soul as a logical con- 
clusion. But, in truth, nothing of this kind 
happens in nature. . Nothing really dies. 
What is called death, even of the smallest 
and apparently most inanimate thing, is 
merely a change of form and condition of the 
energy and activities which constitute it. 
Even the body does not die, in the strict sense 
of the word. The body is not an entity, for 
it is merely an aggregation of cells, and these 
:cells are merely material vehicles for a certain 
form of energy which animates and vitalizes 
them. When the soul passes from the body, 
the units composing the body manifest re- 
pulsion for each other, in place of the 
attraction which formerly held them together. 



''There is no Death*' 21 

The unifying force which has held them to- 
gether withdraws its power, and the reverse 
activity is manifested. As a writer has well 
said: **The body is never more alive than 
when it is dead/' As another writer has 
said : *' Death is but an aspect of Life, and the 
destruction of one material form is but a 
prelude to the building up of another." So 
the argument of the materialist really lacks 
its major premise, and all reasoning based 
ithereon must be faulty and leading to a false 
iconclusion. 

But the advanced occultist, or other spirit- 
ually developed person, does not require to 
seriously consider the argument of the mate- 
rialists, nor would he even though these argu- 
ments were a hundred times more logical. 
For such a person has awakened within him- 
self the higher psychic and spiritual faculties 
whereby he may actually know that the soul 
perishes not when the body dissolves. When 
one is able to leave the physical body behind, 
and actually travel in the regions of *Hhe 
other side," as in the case of many advanced 
individuals, any purely speculative discus- 
isions or arguments on the realty of **life after 
death" take on the appearance of absurdity 
and futility. 



22 The Life Beyond Death 

If an individual, who has not as yet reached 
the stage of psychical and spiritual discern- 
ment whereby he is given the evidence of the 
higher sense on the question of the survival 
of the soul, finds his reason demanding some- 
thing akin to ** proof," let him turn his 
mental gaze inward instead of outward, and 
there he will find that which he seeks. For, 
at the last, as all philosophy teaches us, the 
world of the inner is far more real than is 
the world of the outer phenomena. In fact, 
man has no actual knowledge of the outer — 
all he has is the report of the inner upon the 
impressions received from the outer. Man 
sees not the tree at which he is gazing — he 
perceives but the inverted image of that tree 
pictured upon his retina. Nay, more, his 
mind does not even see this image, for it re- 
ceives only the vibratory report of the nerves 
whose ends have been excited by that image. 
So we need not be ashamed of taking mental 
stock of the inner recesses of our mind, for 
many of the deepest truths are recorded 
there. 

In the great subconscious and super-con- 
scious regions of the mind are to be found a 
knowledge of many fundamental truths of the 



''There is no Death'' 23 

universe. Between two of these truths most 
strongly impressed there are these (1) the 
certainty of the existence of a Supreme Uni- 
versal Power, under, back of, and supporting 
the phenomenal world; (2) the certanity of 
the immortality of the Eeal Self — that Some- 
thing Within which fire cannot destroy, water 
cannot drown, nor air blow away. The 
mental eye turned inward will always find the 
**I,*' with the certainty of its imperishability. 
It is true that this is a different kind of proof 
from that required regarding material and 
physical objects, but what of that? The 
truth sought is a fact of spiritual inner life, 
and not of the physical outer life — therefore 
it must be looked for within, and not without, 
the soul itself. The objective intellect con- 
cerns physical objects alone — the subjective 
intellect, or intuition, concerns psychical and 
spiritual objects ; the one the body of things, 
the other the soul of things. Look for knowl- 
edge, concern either class of things in his own 
appropriate region of your being. 

Let the soul speak for itself, and you will 
find that its song will ring forth clearly, 
strongly, and gloriously : ' ' There is no Death ; 
there is no Death ; there is no Death ; there is 



24 The Life Beyond Death 

naught but Life, and that Life is LIFE 
EVERLASTING !»' Such is the song of the 
soul. Listen for it is the Silence, for there 
alone can its vibrations reach your eager 
ears. It is the Song of Life ever deyning 
Death. There is no Death — there is naught 
but Life Everlasting, forever, and forever, 
and forever. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PLANES OF LIFE 

One of the elementary ideas of the Yogi 
Philosophy most difficult for the ordinary 
Western mind to grasp and assimilate is that 
of the *^ planes'' of life. This difficulty is 
most apparent when the Western student 
attempts to grasp the Yogi teachings regard- 
ing * * the other side. ' ' The Western thought 
insists upon the concept of the realm of the 
life of the disembodied soul as a place, or 
places. The Western theology is responsible 
for this, to a great extent, although there is 
also to be considered the tendency of the 
Western mind to think in terms of objective 
existence, even when life apart from the 
objective is being considered. The average 
Wesiern religionist insists upon thinking of 
** heaven" as a place situated somewhere in 
space, containing beautiful mansions of 
precious stones, situated on streets paved 
with gold. Even those who have outgrown 
this childish idea find it difficult to conceive 
25 



26 The Life Beyond Death 

of their heaven as a state rather than a place. 
The Western mind finds it hard to form the 
abstract concept, and naturally falls back on 
the old idea of a heaven in space. 

The Oriental mind, on the contrary, finds 
it quite easy to grasp the idea of the several 
planes of existence. Centuries of familiar 
thought on the subject has rendered the con- 
<3ept as clear and definite as that of place. We 
have met Western thinkers who smilingly 
confessed that they could not divest their con- 
cept of *^ planes^' with that of a level strata, 
or layer of some kind of material substance. 
But this conception is as far from the truth 
as is the idea of mere place. A plane is a 
state, not a place in any sense of the word. 
And the student must learn to eliminate the 
idea of place from that of plane. 

A plane is a condition or state of activity 
in the eternal energy of spirit in which the 
Cosmos lives, and moves and has its being. In 
any given point of space there may be many 
planes of activity. Taking our examples from 
the physical world, let us use the ordinary 
vibration of sound as an illustration. The 
air may be filled with many notes of the musi- 
cal scale. Each note is simply a certain de- 



The Planes of Life 27 

gree of vibration of the air. The notes 
occupy the same position in space, and yet 
do not conflict with each other so far as space- 
filling qualities are concerned. It is an axiom 
of physics that no two bodies of matter can 
occupy the same space at the same time. But 
thousands of these vibratory notes may oc- 
cupy the same space at the same time. This 
is borne upon one when he listens to some 
great orchestral rendering a muscial compo- 
sition. Many instruments are playing at the 
same time, and the air is filled with countless 
vibrations, and yet one may pick out any 
particular instrument if he choses, and even 
particular notes may be distinguished. No 
note is lost, and yet the entire volume is mani- 
fested in the small space of the ear drum. 
This is a somewhat rude illustration, but it 
may serve to accustom the mind to form the 
proper concept. 

Another illustration, this time on a little 
higher scale, is that of the vibrations of light. 
Light, we know, appears as the result of the 
vibratory waves of the ether coming in con- 
tact with physical matter. Each color has its 
own place on the vibratory scale. Each ray 
of sunshine that reaches us is composed of a 



28 The Life Beyond Death 

great variety of colors — the colors of the 
spectrum, which may be separated by means 
of certain prismatic instruments. All of the 
colors are to be found in every point of space 
in which the ray of sunlight appears. They 
are all there, and may be separated and regis- 
tered apart from the others. Moreover, be- 
yond the realm of light visible to the human 
eye, there are many colors invisible to the 
human sight by reason of their vibrations 
being either too high or two low. These in- 
visible colors may be detected by means of 
instruments. Perhaps these varying rates of 
color vibrations may help you to form the 
idea of the spaceless planes of existence. 

Another illustration may be found in the 
field of electricty, in which we find fresh in- 
stances of various degrees and condition of 
energy occuping the same space at the same 
time. On improved telegraphic apparatus 
we find many messages passing in each di- 
rection along the same wire, each independ- 
ent, and none interfering with the others. In 
the same way, the air may be filled with a 
thousand wireless-telegraphic messages, at- 
tuned to different keys and consequently not 
interfering with each other. The various 



The Planes of Life 29 

vibrations interpenetrate each other, each 
seemingly being unaware of the presence of 
the other and not being affected by it. It is 
conceivable, even, that there might be a dozen 
worlds occupying the same portion of space, 
but each being keyed on a far different vibra- 
tory scale of matter, and yet none interfering 
with the other, the living things on each being 
totally unaware of the existence of those of 
the other. Scientific writers have amused 
themselves by writing fanciful stories of such 
a series of worlds, and indeed they wrote 
better than they knew, for they symbolized a 
metaphysical truth in physical terms. 

But, it may be objected, does the Yogi Phil- 
osophy teach that these planes of Life are 
but varying forms of vibrations of matter? 
Not at all. Far from it. The teaching is that 
each plane represents a different degree of 
vibratory energy — but not of matter. Matter 
is merely a very low form of vibratory energy 
— even the finest form of matter. There are 
forms of matter as much higher than the 
finest of which the ordinary physical scientist 
has knowledge, as his finest matter is higher 
than the hardest rock. And beyond the plane 
of matter rise plane upon plane of super- 



30 The Life Beyond Death 

material energy, of wMch tlie mind of physi- 
cal science does not even dare to dream. And 
yet, for the purpose of the illustration, we 
may say that it is possible to think of every 
one of the planes manifesting in the same 
point of space at the same time. So you see, 
the conception of planes has nothing whatever 
in common with that of space. 

In view of the foregoing, the student will 
see that when we speak of the planes of exis- 
tence of **the other side," we are far from 
meaning to indicate places or regions of 
space. The Yogi Philosohpy has naught to 
do with doctrines of heavens or hells or pur- 
gatories in the sense of places. It knows of 
no such places, or regions, although it recog- 
nizes the real basis of the teachings which 
hold to the same. 

In this particular volume, we shall not at- 
tempt to consider the general question of the 
countless planes of existence manifesting in 
the universe. The scope of this particular 
work confines us to the consideration and des- 
cription of those particular planes of the 
Astral World which are concerned in the 
manifestation of the existence of the disem- 
bodied souls of the dwellers upon earth — ^the 



The Planes of Life 31 

so-called *' spirit-world'' of the human race. 
We shall see that there are many planes and 
sub-planes of existence on the great Astral 
Plane of Life — generally known as The 
Astral World, in order to distingnish it from 
the Physical World below it in the vibratory 
scale. Each plane and sub-plane has its own 
distinguishing characteristics and phenom- 
ena, as we shall see as we proceed. And yet 
the same general laws, principles, and char- 
acteristic qualities are common to all. 

Finally, before we pass on the consideration 
of the Astral Plane, let us once more endeavor 
to fix in your minds the proper conception of 
the real nature of that which we know as 
* * planes. ' ' When we speak of * * rising ' ' from 
a lower to a higher plane, or of ** descending" 
from a higher to a lower plane, we do not 
wish to be understood as picturing an ascent 
or decent of steps. Nor are we picturing a 
rising or descending from one layer or strata 
to another. Even the familiar symbol of ris- 
ing from the ocean depths to its surface, is 
incorrect. The nearest mental picture pos- 
sible to be made of the transition from plane 
to plane, is that of increase or decrease of 
vibrations as evidenced in sound-waves, light- 



32 The Life Beyond Death 

waves, or waves of electricty. By tightening 
a violin string, one may raise its degree of vi- 
bration and therefore its note. The same 
may be done by heating a bar of iron causing 
its color to change gradually from a dull red 
to a delicate violet or white. Or in the case of 
a current of electricity, the power may be 
raised or lowered at will. If a still more 
material illustration be required, we have the 
case of the hardest mineral which may be 
changed into an invisible vapor simply by 
raising its degree of vibrations by heat. What 
is true on the lower planes of manifestation, 
is true of the higher. The transition from 
higher to lower, or lower to higher may be 
thought of (if desired) as a change of vibra- 
tion in the energy of which all things are com- 
posed. This will come about as near to the 
truth as our imperfect powers of conception 
and comparison will permit. There are no 
words to express the higher phenomena — all 
illustration in terms of the lower planes are 
crude, imperfect, and unsatisfactory. But 
even by these lowly symbols may the mind of 
man learn to grasp the ideas of things above 
the ordinary senses, and beyond the power of 
ordinary terms to express. 



The Planes of Life 33 

And, now, with the above firmly fixed in 
your minds, let us proceed to a consideration 
of the Great Astral Plane of Existence. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ASTRAL PLANE 

Students of occultism, Oriental and Occi- 
dental, find many references in the works of 
the old authorities, to that great series of 
planes, immediately above those of the mate- 
rial world, which are loosely styled the 
** Astral Plane.'' But they find the various 
authorities diiffering in their usage of the 
term. Many of the older authorities use the 
term, as we shall in this book, to designate 
the entire series of planes lying between those 
of the material world and those very exalted 
planes of existance, known as the ** Spiritual 
Planes'' the very nature of which is be- 
yond the comprehension of the mind of the 
average man. On the other hand, some of the 
modern Western writers on the subject use 
the term the *^ Astral Plane" to indicate 
merely the lower planes and sub-planes of the 
Astral series — those planes which blend into 
the material planes on the one hand and into 
the higher Astral planes on the other. This 
34 



The Astral Plane 35 

has caused some confusion in the minds of 
those beginning the study of the planes above 
the material. 

In this book, as in our previous volumes, 
we follow the example of the ancient author- 
ities, and apply the term, as they did, to the 
entire great series of planes lying between the 
material planes and the highest spiritual 
planes. We consider this plan preferable, 
for the reason that it is more simple, and 
tends to prevent the student from being con- 
fused by reason of many technical distinc- 
tions. 

The Astral Plane is composed of number- 
less planes and sub-planes, and divisions of 
sub-planes, rising in a gradually ascending 
scale from those which touch and blend in 
with the higher material planes, to those 
which touch and blend into the lower strata 
(if tjie term may be so used) of the great 
spiritual planes. But between these two ex- 
tremes is to be found the greatest possible 
variety of phenomena and phases of exist- 
ence. On the lower planes of the Astral are 
manifested the psychic activities which men 
know as clairvoyance, clairaudience, telep- 
athy, psychometry, etc. On other of the 



36 The Life Beyond Death 

lower planes of the Astral are to be found 
certain forms of the ** ghosts/' ** spooks,'* 
and other apparitions of disembodied souls 
which occasionally are perceived and sensed 
by man and some of the lower animals. On 
certain of these planes, also, the Astral bodies 
of men still in the flesh travel and manifest 
activity, either during the sleep of the owner 
of the body, or in certain trance conditions, 
or else when the owner deliberately leaves 
the physical body for the time being and pro- 
jects his Astral Body on the Astral Plane. 

The Astral colors are auras, which sur- 
round the physical bodies of all human beings, 
also manifest on certain sub-planes of the 
Astral. Certain other sub-planes may be 
called ^Hhe planes of psychic forces'' by 
means of which various forms of psychic phe- 
nomena are performed. On similar lower 
planes are to be found the *Hhought-forms," 
** thought-waves," thought-clouds," etc., em- 
anating from the minds of human beings, 
which travel about affecting the thoughts and 
emotions of those who attract them and who 
are attuned to their own psychic keynote. We 
mention these only in passing, and for general 
information, rather than in detail, for these 



fl 



^ The Astral Plane 37 

phenomena have been considered in other vol- 
umes of these series of books. 

Some of the lower sub-planes of the Astral 
are far from being healthy or agreeable 
places to visit, or upon which to function, for 
the untrained person. In fact the experienced 
occultist has as little to do with them as pos- 
sible, and advise all dabblers in occultism to 
avoid these miasmatic psychic regions as he 
would a swampy, fever-laden region on the 
material plane. Many persons have wrought 
great injury to themselves from attempting 
to penetrate these lower planes without a cor- 
rect knowledge of the nature thereof, many 
having wrecked their bodies and minds by 
foolishly producing or inducing psychic con- 
ditions which cause them to function on these 
lower psychic planes. The old adage which 
informs us *^that fools rush in where angels 
fear to tread, '* applies in full force in this 
casef. 

Some of these lower Astral sub-planes 
are filled with Astral forms of disembodied 
human beings, the higher principles of whom 
are still attached to the Astral body, and 
which are held earth-bound by reason of the 
attraction of the material world. In this reg- 



38 The Life Beyond Death 

ion also dwell for a time the very scum of dis- 
embodied human life, having every attrac- 
tion to hold them down to the things of the 
material world, and nothing to draw them 
upward. It is pitiful to see persons, who 
would not think of associating with this class 
of persons in the flesh, nevertheless welcom- 
ing psychic intercourse and communication 
with the same class in the Astral, accepting 
them as *^ blessed spirits" and ** beautiful 
souls." The disgust which comes to many 
persons who dapple in ** spirit return" at a 
certain class of seances, is readily understood 
when we understand the character of the 
entities which inhabit these low planes. Some 
of these scoundrelly dwellers on the lower 
Astral planes frequently counterfeit friends 
and relations of the inquirer, much to the 
pained surprise of the latter. 

As the planes ascend in degree we leave 
this class of entities behind, and enter the 
realms where abide the disembodied souls of 
those of higher degrees of spirituality. 
Higher and higher rise the scale of planes 
and sub-planes, until at last are reached the 
realms of the blessed — the temporary abid- 
ing place of those who have attained a high 



The Astral Plane 39 

degree of spiritual development, the '* heaven 
worlds'' which the religions of the race have 
sought to define according to their creeds and 
traditions. And, just as in the creeds of the 
race have been postulated the existence of 
** hells" to oppose the idea of ** heaven," so 
in the Astral world, as might be expected, are 
to be found certain lower planes in which 
dwell the disembodied souls of persons of 
brutal natures and tendencies, in which the 
inevitable result of their earth-life is worked 
out. But these hells of the Astral are not 
eternal — the disembodied soul in turn may 
work out into a better environment— may be 
given ** another chance." The Catholic con- 
ception of *' purgatory" also has its Astral 
existence, in the form of certain sub-planes in 
which, as Hamlet's fathers ghost has said: 
**the foul crimes done in my days of nature 
are burned and purged away" — but not in 
the. fire of materiality, the fires of memory 
and imagination sufficing. 

In short, on the great Astral plane are 
to be found conditions corresponding with 
nearly, if not all, of the conceptions formed by 
the mind of man in connection with the relig- 
ions of all times and places. These concep- 



40 The Life Beyond Death ■ 

tions have not arisen by mere chance — they 
are the result of the experience of certain of 
the race who in some way established psychic 
connection with some of the many Astral 
Planes, each of whom, according to his own 
nature and inchnations, reported his expe- 
riences to his fellows, who afterward incor- 
porated them in the various religions of the 
world. It will be remembered that every race 
of human beings has had its traditions of the 
** place'' of departed souls, the description 
varying greatly and yet all agreeing in some 
particulars. As we proceed, we will see how 
these reports were obtained, and how the 
varying reports may be harmonized and 
understood in connection with each other. 

The term '^AstraP' of course means **of or 
pertaining to the stars. ' ' It originally came 
into use in connection with occultism by 
reason of the common idea of men that **the 
other side'' is **up in the skies;" among the 
clouds, or in the regions of the stars. Even 
in our own day, when the idea of heaven as a 
place has passed from the minds of intelligent 
persons, it is quite natural for us to raise the 
eyes in speaking of ** heaven," or to point 
aloft when we wish to indicate the abode of 



TJie Astral Plane 41 

the blessed. It is difficult to shake off the 
habitual concepts of the race, and while we 
know better than to suppose that there is any- 
special **up or down'' in the Cosmos, still we 
have the old inherited race-habit of thought 
which causes us to think of the higher realms 
of the soul as **up'' toward the stars. And, 
in a similar manner, the old term ** Astral" 
has persisted in occult terminology. 

Once more we must caution the student 
against confounding the idea of the Astral 
Plane with the idea of place or places. There 
is no such place as the Astral Plane. The 
Astral Plane is neither up nor down, neither 
north, south, east or west. It lies in no special 
direction — and yet it lies in all directions. It 
is, first, last, and always, a state or condition 
and not a place. It is rather a phase or 
degree of vibration, rather than a portion of 
space. Its dimensions are those of Time — not 
those of Space. When we use the words: 
**region;'' ^*realm;" **higher or lower;" 
** above or below;" we employ them merely 
figuratively, just as we speak of * * a high rate 
of vibration," or **a rate or vibration above 
that, etc." We find it necessary to repeat 
this caution, for the reason that the average 



42 The Life Beyond Death 

ptudent falls into the pitfall of error in con- 
necting the idea of plane with that of place, 
when there should be no mental association 
between the two. 



CHAPTER V 

AFTER DEATH 

One of the questions most frequently asked 
by the average person who considers the ques- 
tion of life on **the other side," is this: 
**What is the experience of the soul immedi- 
ately after it leaves the body?" It is some- 
what pitiful to hear the answers given to this 
question by many of the so-called authorities 
on the subject. Verily, **a little knowledge 
is a dangerous thing. ' ' 

The average person imagines that the soul 
simply steps out from the body and immedi- 
ately enters into a new world of activity — a 
wonderland of strange and mysterious scenes. 
To many there exists the hope of being met on 
the other shore by all the loved ones who have 
gone before — a great reunion. While there 
is something which corresponds to this, there 
is also an entirely different condition to be 
experienced by the soul immediately after it 
passes out of the body. Let us consider the 
experience of the soul immediately before, 
43 



44 The Life Beyond DeatJi 

and immediately after, its passage from the 
body, so that we may get a clearer light on 
the subject. 

The person approaching the stage generally 
called ** death,'* but which is merely a transi- 
tion stage between two great planes of life, 
experiences a gradual dulling of the physical 
senses. Sight, hearing, and feeling, grow 
dimmer and dimmer, and the *4ife'' of the 
person seems as a flickering candle flame 
gradually approaching utter extinction. In 
many cases, this is the only phenomenon at- 
tending the approach of death. But, in many 
other cases, while the physical senses are 
growing dimmer, the psychical senses are 
growing wonderfully acute. It is a common 
occurrence for dying persons to manifest a 
consciousness of what is occurring in another 
room, or another place. Clairvoyance fre- 
quently accompanies the approach of death, 
in some cases being attended by clairaudience, 
the dying person being conscious of sights and 
sounds in distant places. 

There are also many instances recorded in 
the annals of the societies for psychical re- 
search, and far many more related in the 
privacy of family gatherings, in which the 



After Death 45 

dying person has been able to so strongly pro- 
ject bis personality that friends and relatives 
at a distance have actually seen his form, and 
in some few cases have been able to converse 
with him. A careful comparison of time 
shows that these apparitions, in nearly every 
case, have appeared before the actual death 
of the person, rather than after it. There 
are, of course, cases in which a strong desire 
of the dying person has caused him to project 
his Astral body into the presence of some one 
near to him, immediately after death, but 
these cases are far more rare than those of 
which we have spoken above. In the majority 
of these cases the phenomenon is caused by a 
process of thought-transference of such a 
higher power and degree that the visited per- 
son became impressed with the consciousness 
of the presence of the dying friend or relative 
even while the soul of the latter still remained 
in the body. 

In many cases, also, the dying person be- 
comes psychically conscious of a nearness to 
loved ones who have passed on before. This, 
however, does not necessarily mean that these 
persons are actually present on the scene. 
One must remember that the limitations of 



46 The Life Beyond Death 

space are largely wiped out on the Astral 
Plane, and that one may come into close rap- 
port with the soul of another without there 
existing any near space relationship. In 
other words, while the two souls may not be 
in what may be called a nearness in space, 
they may nevertheless, enjoy the closest rela- 
tionship in mind and spirit. It is very diffi- 
cult for one still in the flesh to realize this. 
On the material plane, the laws of space of 
course govern. Telepathy gives us the key 
to the phenomena of *Hhe other side.'' Two 
persons in the flesh may experience the clos- 
est relationship by means of the communion 
of their mental principles, and yet may be on 
opposite sides of the world. In the same way, 
two souls may enjoy the closest soul commun- 
ion and communication, without the question 
of space nearness coming into question. 

As we have said, the dying person fre- 
quently enters into soul communion and com- 
munication with those already on the other 
side, and is greatly cheered thereby. And 
this is a beautiful fact attending that which 
we call ** death'' — this fact that there really 
do occur those beautiful reunion of loved 
ones, of which good folk discourse so hope- 



After Death 47 

fully. But not in just the way these good 
folk usually imagine. 

The dying person's Astral body gradually 
disengages itself from its physical counter- 
part. The ** Astral body," as the student 
probably is aware, is an exact counterpart of 
the physical body, and during life the two 
dwell together in the majority of cases. The 
Astral body, however, leaves the physical 
body at the death of the latter, and forms the 
covering of the soul for some time. It is 
really a form of material substance, of a de- 
gree, however, so fine that it escapes the tests 
which reveal ordinary matter. Toward the 
last the ** Astral body '' actually slips from the 
physical body and is connected with it only 
by a slender thread or cord of Astral sub- 
stance. Finally this thread snaps, and the 
** Astral body'' floats away, inhabited by the 
soul which has left the physical body behind 
it. But this ** Astral body" is no more the 
soul that was the physical body which it has 
gust left. Both physical and * * Astral bodies ' ' 
are merely temporary coverings for the soul 
itself. 

The soul leaving the physical body (in the 
** Astral body") is plunged into a deep sleep 



48 The Life Beyond Death 

or state of coma resembling the condition of 
the unborn child for several months before 
birth. It is being prepared for re-birth on 
the Astral Plane, and requires time in order 
to adjust itself to the new conditions and to 
gain strength and vigor required for its new 
phase of existence. Nature is full of these 
analogies — birth on the physical and on the 
Astral Plane have many points of resem- 
blance, and both are preceded by this period 
of coma. During this sleep-like stage, the 
soul dwells in the ** Astral body'' which serves 
as its covering and protection, just as the 
womb serves as the protection for the child 
approaching physical birth. 

Before passing on, however, we should stop 
to consider certain features of the life of the 
soul in this stage. Ordinarily the soul sleeps 
in peace, undisturbed by, and protected from, 
outward influences. There are two things, 
however, which tend to create an exception in 
some cases, namely that which may be called 
the dreams of the sleeping soul. These 
dreams arise from two general classes of 
causes, viz : (1) intense desire filling the mind 
of the dying person, such as love, hate, or un- 
fulfilled tasks or duties ; (2) the strong desires 



After Death 49 

and thoughts of those left behind, providing 
such persons are in sufficiently close rapport 
with the departed soul, by reason of love or 
other strong attachments. Either or both of 
these causes tend to produce a restlessness in 
the sleeping soul, and have a tendency to at- 
tract the soul back to the scenes of earth, 
either in a dreamy kind of telepathic com- 
munication, or else, in a few rare cases, by 
something approaching the state of somnam- 
bulism or sleep-walking of the physical life. 
These conditions are regretable, for they dis- 
turb the soul and defer its evolution and de- 
velopment in its new phase of existence. Let 
us consider this in a little more detail, be- 
fore passing on. 

A person passing from the material into 
the Astral Plane in a peaceful state of mind 
is seldom disturbed in the Astral sleep by 
dream-like states. Instead, he lives natur- 
rally through the coma state and then evolves 
easily into the new phase of existence as natu- 
rally as the unfolding of the bud into the 
flower. It is different with the individual 
whose mind is filled with strong desires con- 
cerning earth-life, or with strong remorse, 
hate, or great love and anxiety for those left 



50 The Life Beyond Death 

behind. In the latter case the poor soul is 
often tormented by these earthly ties, and its 
Astral sleep is rendered feverish and fret- 
ful. In such cases there is often also an 
involuntary attempt made to communicate 
with, or to appear to, persons still on the ma- 
terial plane. In extreme cases, as we have 
said, there may even ensue the state resem- 
bling earthly somnambulism or sleep-walking, 
and the poor sleeping soul may even visit its 
former scenes. In such cases, when the appa- 
rition is visible to men it will be noted that 
there is a half -awake manner and air about 
the apparition — a something lacking that 
was present in earth-life. The history of 
^* ghosts*^ bears out this statement, and the 
explanation just given is the only one which 
really throws light on the subject. In time, 
however, these poor earth-bound souls become 
tired, and finally sink into the blessed sleep 
which is their just lot. In the same way, the 
strong desires of those left behind often 
serves to establish a rapport condition be- 
tween such persons and the departed soul, 
causing it to become restless and uneasy. 
Many a well meaning person has acted so as 
to retard the natural processes of the Astral 



After Death 51 

Plane in relation to some loved one who has 
passed away, and has denied to the tired soul 
that rest which it has merited. 



CHAPER VI 

THE SOUL-SLUMBER 

In connection with tlie subject of the soul- 
slumber, of which we have spoken in the pre- 
ceding chapter, we take the liberty of quoting 
from one of our earlier works, in which this 
subject was briefly touched upon, as follows : 
**The process of sinking into the restful state, 
and the soundness and continuance thereof, 
may be interfered with by those left in the 
earth-life. A soul which has * something on 
its mind* to communicate, or which is grieved 
by the pain of those left behind (especially if 
it hears the lamentations and constant calls 
for^ts return), will fight oif the dreamy state 
creeping over it, and will make desperate ef- 
forts to return. And, likewise, the mental 
calls of those who have been left behind will 
disturb the slumber, once it has been entered 
into, and will cause the sleeping soul to rouse 
itself and endeavor to answer the calls, or at 
least will partially awaken it and retard its 
unfoldment. These half-awake souls often 
52 



The Soul-Slumber 53 

manifest in spiritualistic circles. Our selfish 
grief and demands often cause much pain and 
sorrow to our loved ones who have passed 
over to the other side, unless they have 
learned the true state of affairs before they 
have passed out, and refuse to be called back 
even by those whom they love. Cases are 
known where souls have fought oif the slum- 
ber for years in order to be around their loved 
ones on earth, but this course was unwise as 
it caused unnecessary sorrow and pain both 
to the one who had passed on and to those 
who remained on earth. We should avoid 
delaying by our selfish demands the progress 
of those who have passed on, — let them sleep 
on and rest, awaiting the hour of their trans- 
formation. To do otherwise, is to make them 
die their death several times in succession— 
those who truly love and understand always 
avoid this, for their love and understanding 
bids them let the soul depart in peace and take 
its well earned rest and gain its full develop- 
ment. This period of soul-slumber is like the 
existence of the babe in the mother's womb — 
it sleeps that it may awaken into life and 
strength.*' 
There is another phase of this particular 



54 The Life Beyond Death 

stage of the soul progress which should be 
referred to here. Again we quote from what 
we have previously written on the subject, as 
follows: *^It is only the soul of the person 
who has died a natural death which sinks at 
once (if not disturbed) into the soul-slumber. 
Those who die by accident, or who are killed 
— in other words, those who pass out of the 
body suddenly, find themselves wide-awake 
and in full possession of their mental facul- 
ties for some time. They often are not aware 
that they have *died' and cannot understand 
what is the matter with them. They are often 
fully conscious (for a short time) of life on 
earth, and can see and hear all that is going 
on around them, by means of their Astral 
senses. They cannot realize that they have 
passed out of the body, and are often sorely 
perplexed. Their lot would be most unhappy 
for a few days, until the sleep finally over- 
came them in due course, were it not for the 
Astral Helpers, those blessed souls from the 
higher states of existence, who gather around 
them and gently break to them the news of 
their real condition, and offer them words of 
comfort and advise, and generally *take care* 
of them until they sink into the soul-slumber 



The Soul-Slumher 55 

just as a tired child sinks to sleep at night 
These Helpers never fail in their duty, and no 
one who passes out suddenly, be he or she 
*good' or *bad' is neglected, for these helpers 
know that all are Gods children and their own 
spiritual brothers and sisters. Men of high 
spiritual development and powers have been 
known to pass out of their physical bodies, 
temporarily (dwelling in their Astral bod- 
ies), for the purpose of giving aid and advice 
in time of great catastrophes (such as the 
Johnstown Flood and the * Titanic' Disaster) 
or after a great battle, when immediate advice 
and assistance were needed. . . . Per- 
sons dying in the way of which we have 
spoken, of course gradually fall into the slum- 
ber of the soul, just as in the cases of those 
dying a natural death. ' ' 

Another matter which should be mentioned 
in this place is that wonderful phenomenon of 
the review of the past life of the soul, that 
great panorama which passes before the men- 
tal vision of the soul as it sinks into the soul- 
slumber. This the authorities inform us 
really occupies but an infinitesimal moment 
of time — a moment so brief that it can 
scarcely be spoken of as a point in time. Yet 



56 The Life Beyond Death 

in this brief moment, the sonl witnesses the 
panorama of the life it has passed on earth. 
Scene after scene, of infancy to old age, 
passes before it in review. The most insig- 
nificant incident is reproduced with as much 
fidelity to detail as is the greatest event. 
The subconscious planes of memory unfold 
their secrets to the last — ^nothing is reserved 
or withheld. Moreover, the soul, by its awak- 
ened spiritual discernment, is able to know 
the meaning, cause, and consequence of 
every event in its life. It is able to analyze 
and to pass judgment upon itself and its acts. 
Like an omniscient and impartial judge it 
judges itself. The result of this process is 
that the acts of one's past life are concen- 
trated and impressed upon the records of the 
soul, there to become as seeds which will pro- 
duce better fruit in the future. These seeds 
serve to bear the fruits of future character, 
in future lives, at least, so far as the acquired 
characteristics and desires will admit of. 

To those who may object that it is impos- 
sible for the mind to grasp the events of a 
lifetime in the space of a moment of time, we 
would say that psychology will inform them 
that even in ordinary earth-life this is pes- 



The Soul-Slumber 57 

sible. For there are many recorded cases in 
which a person nodding into slumber has 
dreamed of events which have occupied an 
apparent period of many years. In ordinary 
dreams time is practically reduced to a small 
unit, and in the state of which we speak the 
process of concentration is intensified, and 
the single point of time covers the period of 
the longest life. 

The soul carries with it into its slumber- 
state a concentrated record of its entire life, 
including the seeds of its desires, ambitions, 
likes and dislikes, attractions and repulsions. 
These seed-ideas soon begin to sprout and 
bear blossom and fruit. Not only in future in- 
carnations are these manifest, but also in the 
life of the soul on the Astral Plane. For kind 
Nature does not impose on the soul the task 
of living out and outliving all of its tenden- 
cies in future incarnations, but so arranges 
that many of these strong impulses shall be 
manifested and worn out on the Astral Plane, 
so that the soul may leave them behind when 
it is re-bom into a new earth-life. And it is 
toward this fruition that the soul-slumber 
serves. During the soul-sleep the soul is pre- 
pared for its entrance into Astral life and 



58 The Life Beyond Death 

manifestation, the details of which we shall 
see as we proceed. The sonl-slumber is just 
as necessary for the soul in this stage of its 
progress, as is the slumber of the unborn babe 
in the womb of its mother. 

We have heard of some unreasoning per- 
sons who, upon being made acquainted with 
these teachings, manifested a fear of the soul- 
slumber state, and who said they * ^feared the 
sleep in an unknown place, among so many 
unknown things and creatures.'* This ob- 
jection seems very childish to the advanced 
occultist, for he knows that there is nowhere 
in Nature in which an entity is so carefully 
and fully guarded as in this case of the sleep- 
ing soul on the great Astral Plane. So abso- 
lutely secure from invasion or intrusion, from 
harm or hurtful influence, are these sleeping 
souls that nothing short of a complete revolu- 
tion of Nature's most sacred laws could af- 
fect them. The abode is not a place, remem- 
ber, but a condition or state. And this state 
or condition is such that no malign or harm- 
ful influence could in any way whatsoever 
reach or even draw near them. Would that 
all of us in earth-life were so securely 
guarded. So secure are these sleeping souls 



The Soul-Slumber 59 

that it would seem as if all of Nature 's forces 
had conspired to guard and protect them. 
It is a Hindu maxim which runs as follows : 
*Not even the gods on their high thrones have 
any power or dominion over the sleeping- 
souls.'* 

To those whose ideals on the subject of **the 
other side'* have been so influenced by the 
teachings of current theology that this con- 
ception of the soul-slumber may seem strange 
and unusual, we would say that a little con- 
sideration will show that under the popular 
conceptions of even the most favored the- 
ologies will be found many veiled allusions to 
this blessed state of rest which the soul so 
sadly requires after one strenuous life and 
before another. **He giveth His beloved 
sleep;" ** There is rest for the weary;" **He 
has gone to his long rest;" these and many 
other familiar expressions and quotations 
seek to express the innate idea implanted in 
the human mind regarding a period of rest 
which shall come to the tired soul. The idea 
bf ^ * rest, ' ' after the stress and storms of Hf e, 
is so natural and instinctive that it may be 
said to represent the strongest inclination 
and conviction of the human soul in connec- 



60 The Life Beyond Death 

tion witli the idea of death. It is as fixed as 
is the conviction of future life beyond the 
grave. In the advanced occult teachings 
alone, however, are to be found the explana- 
tion of the idea. 

The soul which is instructed regarding the 
existence and nature of this period of soul- 
slumber will find nothing but satisfaction in 
the contemplation thereof. It will learn to 
regard this stage of its future existence as a 
blessed balm and comfort. It will feel toward 
this state that which we find expressed in the 
words of the old song: **And calm and peace- 
ful do I sleep, rocked in the Cradle of the 
Deep." As rest, securely resting, on the 
bosom of that Great Ocean of Life. Eest, 
calm, peace, security, protection — this is the 
condition of the soul-slumber on the Astral 
Plane. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE SOUL'S AWAKENING 

There is a great difference in the time re- 
quired for the development in soul-slmnber by 
different souls. Some dwell in this state for 
a very short time, while souls of a higher 
degree of attainment require a much longer 
time in the soul-slumber state. Here, too, 
we find a remarkable correspondence with the 
phenomenon of gestation and birth on the 
material plane, which should be considered 
by the student. For instance, in the case of 
these animals whose natural life period is 
short, we find, as a rule, that their period of 
gestation in the womb is correspondingly 
short ; on the other hand, animals of a natural 
long life spend a much longer period in the 
womb before birth. Thus, the elephant has 
twenty or twenty-one months in the womb; 
man, nine months; rabbits, one month; 
guinea-pigs, three weeks; the natural life of 
each bearing a relation to the period of gesta- 
tion. In the same way, the gestation period 
61 



62 The Life Beyond Death 

on the Astral Plane — the period of the sonl- 
slnmber is f onnd to vary in proportion to the 
time the awakened soul is to pass on the As- 
tral Plane. An apparent exception to this 
rule is found in the case of persons of highly 
advanced spiritual power and knowledge, in 
which the soul is able, by its knowledge and 
power, to largely control the natural pro- 
cesses instead of being under their general 
control. 

The difference in the period of soul-slum- 
ber in varying cases, above noted, arises from 
the fact that the soul during its slumber 
period discards the lower portions of its men- 
tal nature (as well as its Astral body) and 
awakens only when it has reached the highest 
state of development possible for it, when it 
is able to pass on to the particular plane or 
sub-plane for which its degree of develop- 
ment calls. A soul of low development has 
very little to *^shed*' in this way, and soon 
awakens on a low plane. A soul of higher 
development, on the contrary, must shed and 
discard sheath after sheath of the lower men- 
tal and animal nature, before it can awaken 
on the plane of its highest attainment. When 
we say **shed'' or discard, we mean rather 



The SouV.s Awakening 63 

prepare to shed or discard, for the actual pro- 
cess of discarding or shedding these lower 
fragments of personality occurs immediately 
after the first stage of the awakening, as we 
shall see in the next paragraph. 

The soul feeling the impulses of re-awak- 
ened life, stirs itself slowly and languidly, as 
one does in awakening from a sound slumber 
in earth-life. Then, like the butterfly throw- 
ing aside the chrysalis shell, it slips away 
from the Astral body, and in rapid succession 
unconsciously discards the lower pripciples 
of its nature. This occupies but a short time, 
and occurs while the soul is slowly regaining 
consciousness. At the moment of the actual 
awakening, the soul is free from all these 
worn out shells and encumbrances, and opens 
its eyes upon the scenes of its new activities 
and existence in the Astral World. 

Each soul is destined to dwell on the plane 
of the highest and best in itself, after the 
dross of the lower elements has been dis- 
carded. It awakens on the plane in which 
the highest and best in itself is given a chance 
to develop and expand. The soul may, and 
often does, make great progress on the Astral 
Plane, and during its stay there, may discard 



64 The Life Beyond Death 

more of its lower nature as it passes to higher 
and still higher planes or sub-planes. 

It is a beautiful fact this of the soul dwell- 
ing on the plane of its highest and best. The 
student immediately recognizes that this ans- 
wers the longing of the soul, and the aspira- 
tion of the heart. There is often something 
within individuals which is much higher and 
better than their everyday life and actions 
would seem to indicate. Material environ- 
ment and circumstances tend to retard and 
prevent the expression of the best in us, in 
many cases. Therefore, it is pleasant to 
know that on **the other side" the soul is re- 
lieved of all that tends to hold it back and 
drag it down, and is rendered free to express 
and develop those qualities and character- 
istics which represent the best and truest that 
is in it. This fact accords not only with the 
sense of justice and equity ; not only with the 
longings and cravings of the imprisoned soul, 
but also with the facts and principles of evo- 
lution, which ever attracts upward and on- 
ward, toward some far off goal of attainment 
and perfection. 

If passing on the plane of its future activi- 
ties, the soul has discarded its Astral body, 



The Soul's Awakening 65 

that strange counterpart of the physical body 
is discarded still further back. Henceforth 
the soul does not wear the form and shape of 
the human being, but is something of a far 
higher order of being to which the terms 
** shape" and ^^form'' do not apply. Our 
physical bodies (and their Astral counter- 
parts) are the result of physical evolution, 
and are but the bodies of developed animals. 
The soul on the higher planes has no need of 
arms and legs, hands and feet, — it dwells 
where these instruments of a lower form of 
expression are not needed. It is a being 
transcending the limitations of physical life. 
The discarded mental principles soon are 
resolved into their original elements (but the 
discarded Astral body becomes what is known 
as an ** Astral shell,'' and, forsaken by its 
former occupant it sinks, by what may be 
called astral gravitation, to the lowest^ planes 
of the Astral, there to slowly disintegrate. 
The lower planes of the Astral are filled with 
chese discarded Astral shells, floating about 
in the Astral atmosphere. They are not 
pleasant things to see, and happily the soul 
on the other side does not witness them, for 
it dwells on a plane far above their region. 



66 The Life Beyond Death 

But persons in earth-life who dapple in 
things physical, before they understand the 
first principles of psychic science, often find 
themselves on the lower planes of the Astral 
Plane and consequently witness some very 
unpleasant sights in this region, as might be 
expected. 

The plane upon which the soul awakens is 
not a place, you remember, but a state or con- 
dition of existence — a degree in the scale of 
the vibratory energy of the spiritual world. 
As we have said, each soul awakens on the 
plane representing its highest and best, upon 
which plane it dwells during its stay on the 
Astral Plane, excepting where it develops it- 
self and moves on to a still higher plane, or, 
when, as alas ! sometimes happens, it longs for 
the fleshpots of Egypt and is attracted by 
memories of lower principles and descends to 
a lower plane where it finds more congenial 
company and surroundings. There is natur- 
ally a great difference between the various 
planes and sub-planes of the Astral Plane. 
Some are very little removed from the low 
scenes of earth-life, while others express the 
highest conceptions of the human soul. And 
each attracts to itself those who are fitted to 



The SouVs Awakening 67 

dwell in its region — those whose best and 
highest correspond with the new environment. 
But the highest and best of the soul of low 
development is but very little above the ev- 
eryday thoughts and actions of the same soul 
in the body. Persons of low spiritual devel- 
opment must needs go through many periods 
of purification and development before they 
can escape the lure and attraction of the ma- 
terial world. There are souls so earth-bound 
— so hypnotized by the low pleasures of earth- 
life — that on **the other side'* they even re- 
fuse to forsake their Astral shellSj and actu- 
ally strive to abide in the worn-out and disin- 
tegrating shells while they last, and maintain 
a rapport condition with the scenes and asso- 
ciates of the former life. Others find them- 
selves on planes in which there is a conflict 
between the upward attraction of the higher 
things of spiritual life and the lower things 
of the material world, and they live a more or 
less unbalanced life in the Astral, at least for 
a time, until one attraction proves the 
stronger and they rise and fall in the spiritual 
scale, in accordance therewith. Others still 
find themselves on a plane in which there is 
but little or no attraction from the material 



68 The Life Beyond Death 

world, and to them the Astral Life is lived out 
in advancement, development, and a fuller 
expression of the highest and best within 
them. 

The awakening of the soul is akin to a new 
birth — an entrance into a new world of ex- 
perience. The soul manifests no fear of its 
new surroundings, but is full of activity in the 
direction of expression and manifestation of 
its new powers. There is much to occupy the 
soul, as we shall see as we proceed. It is not 
lonely or lonesome, for it has the companion- 
ship of those in harmony and sympathy with 
itself, and is free from the inharmony and 
friction of association with those of different 
natures. It finds opportunity for the fullest 
expression of its activities and desires, and, 
particularly on the higher planes, finds life 
much happier than on the material plane. 
Only the souls of the lowest development — 
those poor earth-bound creatures — are un- 
happy, for they are removed from the only 
thing which gives them pleasure, the things of 
earth. And even in their cases there is at 
least something like happiness at times. 

After the soul-slumber, the soul awakens 
into LIFE, not into a npgion of Death. Like 



The SouVs Awakening 69 

the butterfly, it spreads its wings and enjoys 
its new state of existence, and does not mourn 
the loss of the chrysalis form and life. In 
the succeeding chapters you will see the na- 
ture and incidents of this new life, in further 
detail. 



CHAPTER Vin 
ASTRAL PLANE GEOGRAPHY 

Before proceeding to a consideration of the 
experiences of the newly awakened disem- 
bodied soul, we ask you to take a brief glimpse 
at what may be called ** geography" of the 
Astral Plane, that great scene or plane of the 
activities of the disembodied souls of the race ; 
this is the logical path of approach to the sub- 
ject. For, before we are asked to consider 
the inhabitants of a new country, we are 
generally made acquainted with the coun- 
try itself, its hills and valleys, its rivers and 
plains, its highlands and lowlands. And, 
using the same figure of speech, let us now 
take a little lesson in the geography of the As- 
tral Plane, the place of abode of the disem- 
bodied souls. 

But, first let us again remind you that the 
Astral Plane is not a country — is not a place 
at all — in the usual sense. Its dimensions 
are not those of space, but of vibration. In 
a way it may be said that the dimensions of 
70 



Astral Plane Geography 71 

the Astral Plane are the dimensions of Time, 

for vibrations can be measured only by their 

rate of motion, and that rate is determined 

only in terms of Time. The same is true of 

all vibrations whether of Astral energy or the 

lower forms of energy. The vibrations of 

light are measured in terms of Time, that is 

to say so many vibrations to the second, and 

so on. The higher the rate of vibration, the 

greater the rate of speed manifested in the ^ 

vibration. The ancient occunsts were fond of f^cr UaTM 

stating the truth regarding the highest forms 

of vibration, by saying that there a rate of 

vibration so infinitely rapid that it seems to 

be absolutely still and motionless. From this 

extreme, we descend by degrees until the very 

grossest forms of matter are reached, and 

there we find a rate of vibration so slow that 

it likewise seems motionless. 

The substance of the Astral Plane is, of 
course, very much finer than that of the ma- 
terial plane — its vibrations very much higher 
than the finest form of material substance. 
But there is the widest range between the 
vibrations of the lowest planes and those of 
the higher ones. In fact, the difference be- 
tween the lowest plane of the Astral, and the 



72 The Life Beyond Death 

highest of the material plane, is less than the 
difference between the lowest and highest of 
the Astral itself. So that between these two 
extremes of Astral vibrations, we have the 
same great territory that we would have on 
the material plane, with this difference, how- 
ever, that the material territory is measured 
by space dimensions, while that of the Astral 
is to be measured only in terms of vibration, 
or time, and not of space. 

For instance, when one travels on the ma- 
terial plane, he must traverse space — feet, 
yards, or miles. But, on the Astral Plane, 
when one travels he traverses rates of vibra- 
tions — that is to say, he passes from a high 
rate of vibration to a lower, or vice versa. 
And these various planes or sub-planes of 
vibratory energy constitute the geographical 
features of the Astral Plane. There are 
countless planes and sub-planes, or ** re- 
gions" of the Astral Plane, which may be 
traveled, but all Astral travel is performed 
simply by passing from one degree of vibra- 
tion to another. Using a crude example, we 
may say that it is somewhat akin to passing 
from the state of ice to that of water, and then 
of steam. Or, again, it may be thought of as 



Astral Plane Geography 73 

passing from ordinary atmospheric air, to 
liquid air, and then to solid air (the latter is 
theoretically possible, although science has 
not yet been able to solidify air. These illus- 
trations are of course very crude, but they 
may help you to understand the geography of 
the Astral Plane a little better. 

Henceforth, we shall speak of travel on the 
Astral Plane — that is travel between the dif- 
ferent planes and sub-planes of the Astral — 
as if it were on the material plane. That is 
to say, instead of saying that the soul passes 
from one state of vibration to another, we 
shall speak of it as proceeding from one sub- 
plane or plane to another, in the same terms 
that we would employ in describing a journey 
on the material plane. This will simplify 
matters for us, and will obviate a needless re- 
petition of the statement regarding vibration- 
al conditions or states. With this understand- 
ing, we shall now proceed. 

There are many states or conditions of ex- 
istence on the Astral Plane, which are spoken 
of as planes and sub-planes. These planes 
and sub-planes are inhabited by souls fitted to 
dwell upon the particular series of planes or 
sub-planes upon which they awaken from the 



74 The Life Beyond Death 

soul-slumber. Subtle principles of soul at- 
traction draw each soul to the particular place 
for which it is fitted. The great law of at- 
traction operates unerringly here. There is 
no chance or haphazard about the mechanism 
of the law of attraction. The law operates 
with absolute precision and uniformity — it 
makes no mistakes. 

Each soul is restricted in its range by its 
own inherent limitations and degrees of de- 
velopment. There is no need of Astral po- 
licemen to keep the disembodied souls in their 
rightful places. It is impossible for the dis- 
embodied soul to travel into planes above its 
own immediate series. The law of vibration 
prevents this. But, on the contrary, each and 
every soul may, if it so chooses, freely visit 
the planes and sub-planes beneath its own 
series, and freely witness the scenery and phe- 
nomena of those lower planes and mingle with 
the inhabitants thereof. (This entirely apart 
from the high form of telepathic communica- 
tion which prevails between disembodied 
souls on the Astral Plane.) This is a very 
wise provision of the Law, for were it other- 
wise the higher planes would be open to the 
influence of those dwelling on the lower, and 



Astral Plane Geography 75 

the soul-life and development would be inter- 
rupted, just as a class-room in a school of 
philosophy might be interrupted by a gang of 
hoodlums from the slums of a large city. (For, 
remember, the Astral Plane has its slums and 
hoodlums, as well as the material plane.) 

In a previous work we gave a somewhat 
crude, but nevertheless a very striking illus- 
tration of this matter of the intercommunica- 
tion between the various planes and sub- 
planes of the Astral Plane, which we here- 
with reproduce, as follows: '^It is absolutely 
impossible for a soul to go beyond the plane 
to which it belongs, although those on the up- 
per planes may freely revisit the lower planes, 
this being the rule of the Astral Plane — not 
an arbitrary law, but a law of nature. If the 
student will pardon the commonplace com- 
parison, he may get an understanding of it 
by' imagining a large screen, or series of 
screens, such as are used for sorting coal 
into sizes. The large coal is caught by the 
first screen, the next size by the second, and 
so on until the tiny coal is reached. Now, the 
large coal cannot get into the receptacle of the 
smaller sizes, but the small sizes may easily 
pass through the screen and join the large 



76 The Life Beyond Death 

sizes, if force be imparted to them. Just so 
on the Astral Plane, the soul with the greatest 
amount of materiality, and coarsest nature, 
is stopped by the screen of a certain grade or 
plane, and cannot pass on to the higher ones ; 
while one which has passed on to the higher 
planes, having cast off more confining sheaths, 
can easily pass backward and forward among 
the lower planes, if it so desires. In fact, 
souls often do so, for the purpose of visiting 
friends on the lower planes, and giving them 
enjoyment and comfort, and, in case of a 
highly developed soul, much spiritual help 
may be given in this way, by means of ad- 
vice and instruction, when the soul on the 
lower plane is ready to receive it.'' 

In the passage alluded to above, there is the 
following additional words, which also should 
be repeated here, for it concerns the geog- 
raphy of the Astral Plane. We allude to the 
following : * * The one exception to the rule of 
free passage to the planes below that of the 
particular soul, is the one which prevents the 
lower-plane souls from entering the * plane of 
the sleepers, ' which plane may not be entered 
by souls which have awakened on a low plane, 
but which may be freely entered by those pure 



Astral Plane Geography 77 

and exalted souls who have attained a high 
place. The plane of soul-slumber is sacred 
to those occupying it, and those higher souls 
just mentioned, and it is in fact rather of the 
nature of a distinct and separate state than 
one of the great series of planes and sub- 
planes. ' ' 

There are as many different kind of regions 
on the Astral Plane as there are on the ma- 
terial plane, and each plane is inhabited by 
exactly the class of souls which it might be 
expected to attract. There are to be found 
the abodes of degraded souls, so steeped in 
materiality and animality, that they would 
be veritable hell to a soul of higher attain- 
ment. It may well be imagined that the soul 
of higher impulses has no desire to travel 
into these depths of the Astral, unless, in- 
dee^ it be some very highly developed soul 
which is willing to ** descend into helP' in 
order to minister to the needs of some lower 
soul which is striving to emerge from the 
slough of despond into which its earth life 
has thrown it. Such ministering spirits do 
exist, and perform this work for their lower 
brothers and sisters. But, as a rule, the dis- 
embodied souls prefers to work out its own 



78 The Life Beyond Death 

evolution on its own plane, that it may ascend 
to the higher gardes of spiritual opportunity 
in its next incarnation, and that it may ae- 
on its particular plane of the Astral, 
quire spiritual knowledge during its sojourn 



CHAPTER IX 
PEIMITIVE SOUL-STATES 

The man and woman of culture and refine- 
ment are generally inclined to smile at the 
heaven-traditions of the primitive peoples, 
and, perhaps, to experience a feeling of sor- 
row at the lowly ideals of the barbarous and 
semi-barbarous races of man as mani- 
fested by their primitive conceptions regard- 
ing the heaven-world. But, the experienced 
occultist, in turn, may smile at the smug com- 
placency of many of those in civilized lands 
who speak pityingly of these lowly ideals and 
conceptions, for these occultists know that 
these conceptions have a basis in reality 
in the life of the primitive peoples on the 
Astral Plane. 

Just as the future condition of the indi- 
vidual is determined largely by the nature, 
character and strength of his desires, so is 
his life on the Astral Plane largely deter- 
mined by his desires and ideals. The Astral 
Plane gives free expression to the ideals en- 
79 



80 The Life Beyond Death 

tertained by the individual in earth-life, and, 
in fact, may be spoken of as largely a reflec- 
tion of those ideals. On the Astral Plane 
our ideals tend toward a real manifestation. 
And this is true not only of high ideals, but 
of the lowest as well. 

This fact being understood, it will be seen 
that it is a logical necessity that the astral 
existance of the primitive peoples of* the race 
shall be a reflection of the ideals and desires 
held by them during the period of earth-life — 
a dramatization of their desire-ideals of their 
past life. In short, the Indian really finds 
his *^ happy hunting grounds," and the other 
primitive peoples their particular paradise 
as pictured in their creeds and faiths. This 
at first, seems somewhat shocking to the per- 
son whose ideals of ** heaven'' are modeled 
upon the realm of golden streets, where milk 
and honey flows. But a little thought will 
show that the conception of the ^^ golden 
streets ' ' is but a little higher in the scale than 
that of the ^^ happy hunting-ground," for 
it is purely material and reflects the ideals 
of a race whose desires are for glittering and 
costly things. 

If one will but consider the emotional and 



Primitive Soul-States 81 

intellectual nature of the primitive person, 
he will see that to surround such a soul with 
the environment of the cultured civilized per- 
son would be to render him very unhappy. 
In fact, such a heaven would to him seem like 
a hell. One has but to imagine a savage in 
earth life placed in a palace with the sur- 
roundings fitted to the ideals of a person 
of high culture and refinement, to realize just 
how miserable the savage would really be. 
The same thing holds true on the Astral 
Plane. Nature is kind to the savage, as well 
as to the cultured person, and furnishes him 
with the environment in which he will feel 
the most at home, and in which he will find 
the greatest opportunity for self-expression. 
This does not mean that on the Astral 
Plane there are elaborately arranged series 
of scenery and surroundings fitted for the 
tas^:es of each and every kind of soul. On the 
contrary, there is no such stage-setting what- 
soever. Here is the secret: There is no 
scenery on the Astral Plane except that fur- 
nished by the thought-forms of the souls in- 
habiting it. Each soul carries his own set 
of scenery with it, in his imaginative facul- 
ties of mind. It follows, of course, that many 



f 82 The Life Beyond Death 

^^ souls of the same general ideals and tastes 

inhabiting the same sub-plane, will carry the 
« same mental scenery with them. And, as 

Q the power of thought-transferance is mani- 

t fested strongly on the Astral Plane, each 

soul affects the general scenery of the others. 
In fact, the scenery of each sub-plane, or 
division thereof, represents the composite 
ideals and mental images of those inhabiting 
it. '«- In earth-life, environment largely makes 
w the man— on the Astral Plane, man makes his 

own environment, in accordance with the ab- 
solute and unvarying laws of Nature. 
, 4 The Indian, during the short period of his 

^ ^ sojourn on the Astral Plane, finds himself 

1^ \ surrounded by all that makes life pleasant 

^ T and harmonious for him. The clairvoyants 

among the old American Indians, who were 
able to penetrate the lower planes of the As- 
tral Plane, were thoughtful when they re- 
ported the existence of **the happy hunting 
grounds ' * of their departed brothers on ' ' the 
other side.'' True also were the reports of 
the shadowy forms which communicated with 
their former brothers on earth, to the same 
effect. The heaven-world of the Eed Indian 
was precisely as his medicine-men had taught 



Primitive Soul-States 83 

him it would be. Such a soul, awakening 
from the soul slumber, would find itself per- 
fectly at home, surrounded by all that made 
life pleasant to it; great forests and plains, 
streams and rivers, plenty of buffalo and deer 
to be shot, and plenty of fish to be caught. 
All these things existed for such. But 
they existed only mentally. Like a very in- 
tense dream these things appeared to such 
a soul — but it never realized that it was mere- 
ly a dream. ** Dreams are trgp^wbile they 
last,*' as the old writings inform us. And, 
as for that, the wisest of the race inform us 
that the phenomenal universe is really in the 
nature of a Dream of the Absolute — but it 
is none the less real to us. Even in earth- 
life, we sometimes experience dreams so real 
that we suffer as keenly, or enjoy as raptur- 
ously, in them, as if they were the only some- 
what more substantial realities of the wak- 
ing state. 

Those who have made a study of the sub- 
ject, inform us that among all races of men 
there are many reports of clairvoyants, 
seers, dreamers, and communicators with de- 
parted souls, who assert positively the exist- 
ence of ** heavens'' in exact accordance with 



r¥' 



84 The Life Beyond Death 

the religious teachings of their tribe or race, 
no matter how crude and barbarious these 
conceptions may appear to one of a more cul- 
tured faith. It is very easy to dismiss these 
reports either as pure inventions, or dreams 
of the priests. But, closer examination will 
reveal the fact that there is a striking basic 
unity among them — they all agree on the fun- 
damental points, although they differ as to 
the details. The occultist knows that these 
reports are all truthful, so far as they go, and 
have been based on actual physijg experiences 
of certain members of the tribe of people. 
Although they differ greatly in details, they 
agree in fundamentals, and are all based on 
truth. A little consideration of the nature 
of the Astral phenomena, as we have stated 
it, will explain the matter. 

These primitive souls spend a brief ex- 
istence on the lower Astral Planes to which 
they have been attached, and develop newer 
and fuller ideals and desires, which will blos- 
som and bear fruit in their next earth-incar- 
nation. Moreover, they wear-out and out- 
live certain of their lower desires and ideals, 
and in this way, make way for the spirit- 
ual evolution which is ever seeking to unfold 



Primitive Soul-States 85 

on the Astral; serves to unfold these sonls 
a little — only a very little, it is true — but 
every little is a gain. Moreover, as the As- 
tral Life (and usually the earth-life) of the 
savage is comparatively brief, these souls 
really make considerable progress in a given 
space of time — they may live a hundred earth- 
lives, and the corresponding Astral Life, 
while a more highly developed soul is earning 
its spiritual rest on the higher Astral planes. 
Compensation and equity is found here, as 
elsewhere, in the life-processes. 

One of the great gains of the savage soul 
on the Astral Plane is that of the develop- 
ment of comradeship and fellow-feeling. 
This is caused by the reunion of the soul 
with its friends of earth-life, and the joy felt 
thereat. Moreover, the animosities of earth- 
life a^re softened by the nature of the life on 
the Astral, for with a bounteous supply of 
all that the savage soul craves, there is far 
less opportunity for jealousy and rivalry than 
on earth. And, accordingly, hate is stilled, 
and comradeship and elementary friendship 
(the buddings of universal love) are encour- 
aged. Each trip to the Astral Plane bums 
out a little more of the lower nature, and 



86 The Life Beyond Death 

awakens a little more of the higher — other- 
wise, there would be no progress for the race 
in repeated lives. Each soul, no matter how 
undeveloped it may be, learns a little more 
of that feeling of unity and oneness, each 
time it is relieved of the stress of the phys- 
ical body. So that, we may see, that even in 
these crude ^^ heavens" of the primitive peo- 
ples, there is the opportunity and the cer- 
tainty of progress. Happiness begets Love, 
and the soul responds to the stimulus. 

The primitive soul abides but a short time 
on the Astral Plane to which it is attached. 
It soon wears out its limited opportunity for 
expression (although to the soul itself, eter- 
nities seem to have been passed). It soon feels 
the drowsiness of the sleep, which precedes 
rebirth overtaking it, and falling into a state 
of coma, it awaits the attraction of Karma 
which shortly leads it into a new body, to 
again study the lessons of life, and to live and 
out-live that which it finds within itself. The 
attraction of earth-life is strong in such a 
soul, and the law of attraction soon draws it 
back to the scenes of earth. There is no in- 
justice or harshness in this — each soul gets 
that which it most desires, and that for which 



Primitive Soul-States 87 

it most craves. The Law of Compensation is 
in full force here, as elsewhere, and eternal 
Justice reigns. * * All is well, ' ' even with such 
lowly souls — and they are all on THE 

PATH! ~^^ ™_^^ 



CHAPTER X 
ASTRAL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES 

The student of comparative religions is 
struck with the fact that from the primal 
stock of religious belief there emerges an al- 
most countless number of creeds, sects, and 
divisions of religious thought. From the 
very primitive superstitions of the simple 
races to the most advanced conceptions of 
the cultured peoples, there runs a uniting 
thread of fundamental belief in a SOME- 
THING which is above the phenomenal uni- 
verse, and which is the Causeless Cause of 
the Universe. Coupled with this conception 
we find the fundamental belief that the soul 
survives after the death of the body. But this 
conception, also, is variously interpreted by 
the different religious authorities and sects. 
The third general conception, the funda- 
mental religious instinct of the race, is that 
which holds that the future life of the soul de- 
pends upon the character and actions of the 
individual during his earth-life. 
88 



Astral Religious Experiences 89 

It is a long journey from some of the most 
primitive interpretations of these three fun- 
damental principles of religious belief, to that 
high conception of the advanced occultists 
which has been stated by a gifted author as 
follows : 

** There are three truths which are abso- 
lute, and which cannot be lost, but yet may 
remain silent for lack of speech. (1) The 
soul of man is immortal, and its future is' the 
future of a thing whose growth and splendor 
have no limit. (2) The principle which 
gives life dwells in us, and without us ; is un- 
dying and eternally beneficent; is not heard 
or seen, or felt, but is perceived by the man 
who desires perception. (3) Each man is 
his own absolute law-giver; the dispenser of 
glory or gloom to himself, the decreer of his 
life, his reward, his punishment. These 
truths, which are as great as his life itself, 
are as simple as the simplest mind of man. 
Feed the hungry with them. ' ' 

Yet each of the conceptions, and all the 
varying degrees which appear between them, 
are alike the result of man's intuitive per- 
ception of that SOMETHING; the Immortal- 
ity of the Soul ; and the Law of Karma. The 



90 The Life Beyond Death 

difference between the varying forms of re- 
ligious thought is simply the differences be- 
tween the conceptions of Truth formed by 
the minds of various religious leaders or 
teachers and their followers. 

All creeds ajid^ religious dogmas ..are. jpaacb 
made, as the enemies of revealed religion 
maintain. But, these good folks miss the 
other half of the truth, i. e. that underlying 
•the man-made creeds and dogmas eternally 
exists the intuitive perceptio n of the race re- 
garding the existence of Truth. The mind 
may not be able to correctly interpret the in- 
tuitive perception, but it finds itself posi- 
tively impressed by the fact that Truth does 
exist. Man has made a god of nearly every- 
thing in the material world, and has fallen 
down and worshipped his own creation — 
this because of his limited power of inter- 
pretation. But in worshipping the stick or 
stone, the graven image, or the anthropomor- 
phic deities, he was unconsciously, and in^re- 
ality,^worshipping that SOMETHING which 
was the cause of the religious intuition with- 
in his soul. And, as one of the Hindu Vedas 
beautifully states it, the Supreme One accepts 
all such worship, when honestly given as in- 



Astral Religious Experiences 91 

tended for itself. ^ ^ Truth is but One, al- 
though men call it by many names, ' ' says the 
old Yogi sage of centuries past. 

Each man creates for himself, and holds 
to, the particular form of religious faith 
which is best suited for the requirements of 
his soul at any particular period of its evo- 
lution. When he is ready for a higher con- 
ception, he sheds and discards the old belief 
and eagerly embraces the newer one. The 
world has witnessed many instances of this 
evolution of religious thought, and, indeed, 
it is really going through an important one 
at this particular time. The path of the race is 
strewn with broken and discarded idols, ma- 
terial and mental, which were once precious 
to millions of worshippers. And, as the race 
advances, many more idols will be overthrown 
and left crumbling on the paths of time. But 
each idol had its own appropriate place in the 
general history of the evolution of the relig- 
ious thought of the race. Each served its 
purpose, and its ideals served to aid man in 
his perpetual and eternal journey toward Ab- 
solute Truth. 

In view of the above-stated facts, would 
we not naturally expect to find in a rational 



92 The Life Beyond Death 

and equitable adjustment of conditions on 
**the other side'' some provision made for 
the sincere religions faiths and beliefs of the 
race, differing from each other as these faiths 
and beliefs may be? Imagine the spiritual 
anguish of a disembodied soul were it to see 
the cherished beliefs of an earnest life, and 
the traditions of many generations of ances- 
tors, swept away as by a flood. And, this, 
particularly in view of the fact that the soul 
would not be sufficiently advanced to under- 
stand or accept the higher forms of religious 
truth, but would be merely asked to accept 
either something which it could not under- 
stand, or else which was repugnant to it by 
reason of its past training and experience. 
Such would be cruelty to the disembodied sotil 
as much as if the same thing were attempted 
during its earth-life. 

There is a native belief among many per- 
sons which would imply that the disembodied 
soul is magically, and instantaneously trans- 
formed from ignorance into absolute knowl- 
edge upon passing over to **the other side." 
This is a childlike belief, and has no basis 
in fact. There is really but very little differ- 
ence in the general intelligence or spiritual 



Astral Religious Experiences 93 

attainment of the soul, before or after death. 
Soul progress is gradual, in or out of the 
body. The disembodied soul is practically 
the same in general intelligence and under- 
standing, in and out of the body. **In" and 
**ouf of the body are but successive phases 
of its continuous life, succeeding each other 
like day and night, summer and winter. 
Therefore, what is true of a particular souPs 
feelings and emotions in earth-life is almost 
equally true of the same things in its life in 
the Astral. We mention this that you may 
better understand that to which we have been 
leading up in the previous pages of this chap- 
ter. 

Accordingly, what we might naturally ex- 
pect to find (according to reason and in 
equity) regarding the religious experiences of 
the disembodied soul, is so in fact. That is 
to ^ay, on the Astral Plane each soul finds 
itself surrounded by a religious environment 
in accordance with the best of the beliefs en- 
tertained by it in its earth-life. It will not 
only find the particular heavens, or hells, 
which it expected to find, but it will also find 
itself in contact with other souls of a similar 
belief, and with the prophets and sages and 



94 The Life Beyond Death 

founders of its own religion. But this en- 
vironment will be of the nature of a mirage, 
for it is a product of human thought and has 
no counterpart in the absolute facts of nature. 
The thought-forms of a particular form of 
religious thought gather great strength on 
the Astral Plane, and endure with all the ap- 
pearance of permanent reality to the percep- 
tion and understanding of the believer and 
devotee — although entirely invisible to those 
of a different faith. The presence of proph- 
ets and founders remains with the environ- 
ment, though the souls of these individuals 
have long since passed on to other planes of 
life. The Astral Plane is a realm of ideals, 
and each soul finds its ideals realized thereon. 
The good Christian finds a manifestation 
of the best in his own creed and beliefs, and 
rests fully assured that he has had the true 
faith, and has reaped the reward he expected. 
But, the same is true of the good Brahmin, 
or the good Mohammedan, or the good Con- 
fucian. Moreover, each particular sect or 
division of religious belief finds a corrobor- 
ation of its o^vn beliefs on the Astral Plane. 
But there is no warring of sects or religions. 
Each soul finds its own, and is oblivious of the 



Astral Religious Experiences 95 

rest. But, note this apparent exception : tlie 
soul which has advanced far enough to real- 
ize that there is Truth in all religious beliefs, 
and which has manifested a tolerant spirit 
in earth-life, is also given a corroboration of 
his belief, and is allowed to see the joys of the 
blessed of all religious faiths. 

It must be remembered, however, that 
these Astral representations of the various 
religious faiths and beliefs comprise only the 
best of each particular form of belief — in 
short, the soul witnesses the highest concep- 
tion and ideal of which it is capable regard- 
ing its favorite religion. This naturally has 
the effect and result of developing the high- 
est religious conceptions in the soul, and in- 
hibiting the lower ones, to the end that when 
the soul undertakes its next earthly pilgrim- 
age it will carry with it a taste and inclina- 
tion for only the highest in its own religion, 
and will thus aid in the evolution of religion 
on earth. Sometimes a soul will evolve from 
one form of religious conception in its Astral 
Life, and upon its reincarnation will be ready 
for one higher. Eemember, always, that the 
spiritual evolution constantly leads onward 



96 The Life Beyond Death 

and upward, from lower to higher — on, and 
on, and on, forever. 

The question of religions rewards and pun- 
ishments, on the Astral Plane, which natur- 
ally forms a part of the subject just consid- 
ered, will be discussed in the following chap- 
ter. 



CHAPTER XI 

ASTRAL HEAVENS AND HELLS 

In the quotation from the occult writer, 
given in the preceding chapter, the following 
statement is made: **Each man is his own 
absolute law-giver, the dispenser of glory or 
gloom to himself, the decreer of his life, his 
reward, his punishment." And this is true 
not only in earth-life, but also doubly true 
of the life of the soul on the Astral Plane. 
For each disembodied soul carries with it 
its own heaven or hell, of its own creation, 
and of its favorite belief, and partakes of the 
blessings or sorrows of each, according to 
its merits. But the Judge who sentences it 
to reward or punishment is not a Power out- 
side of itself, but a Power Within — in short, 
its own conscience. On the Astral Plane the 
conscience of the soul asserts itself very for- 
cibly, and the still, quiet voice, that was per- 
haps smothered during earth-life, now speaks 
in trumpet-like tones, and the soul hears and 
obeys. 

97 



98 The Life Beyond Death 

A man's own conscience, when allowed to 
speak clearly and forcibly, is tlie most severe 
Judge that exists. Stripping aside all self- 
deception, and hypocrisy, conscious or un- 
conscious, it causes the soul to stand forth 
naked and bare to its own spiritual gaze. 
And the soul, speaking as its own conscience, 
sentences itself in accordance with its own 
conceptions of right and wrong, and accepts 
its fate as merited and just. Man can fly 
from the judgment of others — but he can 
never escape from his own conscience on the 
Astral Plane. He finds himself unable to 
escape from the judgment seat of conscience, 
and he leads himself away to his reward or 
punishment. Such is the poetic justice of 
Nature, which far exceeds any conception of 
mortal man in his religious speculations. 

And, note the absolute equity and justice 
of it all. Man is judged according to the 
highest standards of his own soul, which, of 
course, represent the standards of his time 
and environment. The best in himself — the 
highest of which he is capable — judges and 
passes upon all in him below that standard. 
The result of this is that what the highest 
reason conceives as absolute justice is meted 



Astral Heavens and Hells 99 

out by the soul to itself. The leading think- 
ers of the race almost unanimously agree that 
any arbitrary standard of punishment, such 
as is expressed by the criminal codes of the 
race, must necessarily fall far short of meting 
out invariable actual justice. For the envir- 
onment and education of the criminal may 
have been such that the commission of the 
crime is almost natural to him ; while the same 
crime, committed by another, would be the 
result of a direct betrayal of his conscience 
and a breaking of a moral law of which he is 
fully aware and conscious. We would hardly 
call it criminal for the fox to steal a chicken, 
or for the cat slyly to lap milk from the bowl 
on the table. There are many human beings 
whose sense of moral right and wrong is but 
little above that of the above named animals. 
Therefore, even human law, at least theoreti- 
cally aims not to punish, but to restrain by 
example and precept. 

In connection with the thought expressed 
in the preceding paragraph, we must remem- 
ber that absolute justice has no place for pun- 
ishment as such. As we have said, theoreti- 
cally at least, even human law does not seek 
to punish the criminal, but merely seeks the 



100 The Life Beyond Death 

following ends, viz: (1) To warn others 
not to commit a like crime; (2) to re- 
strain the criminal from committing further 
crime, by confining him, or by imposing other 
deterring penalties; (3) to reform the crimi- 
nal by pointing out the advantages of right 
action and the disadvantage of wrong action. 
This being true even of finite human law, 
what should we expect of infinite cosmic law, 
in this particular? Surely, nothing more or 
less than a discipline which should encour- 
age the unfoldment of the **good'' qualities 
of the soul, and the smothering of the * * evil ^ * 
ones. And this is just what the advanced oc- 
cultist does find to exist on the Astral Plane. 
In this connection, it must be remembered 
that the discipline which would appeal most 
to the soul of lowly ideals, would be with- 
out avail in the case of the cultured soul — and 
vice versa. In short, it may truthfully be 
said that the nature of the appropriate disci- 
pline in each individual case is well expressed 
by the ideal of heaven and hell entertained by 
the individual in earth-life, and which ideal, 
of course, remains with the soul after it has 
passed from the body to the Astral Plane. 
The mind of certain individuals is fully satis- 



Astral Heavens and Hells 101 

fied with the ideals of a lake of brimstone for 
sinners, and the pleasant abode in a golden- 
streeted heaven, with accompaniments of 
harp and crown, for the blessed. Others, 
far advanced beyond this stage, having left 
behind them the old ideas of a heaven in 
space and a hell of torment, think that the 
greatest happiness possible to themselves 
would be a state or condition in which they 
could see their ideals made real, their high- 
est aims realized, their dreams come true; 
and their greatest punishment a condition in 
which they could follow up to its logical 
result the evil they have done. And, both of 
these classes of souls find on the Astral Plane 
the heavens and hells of which they have 
thought — for both have created their heaven 
or hell from the material of their own inner 
consciousness. And such mental conceptions 
lack nothing of reality to those who are con- 
scious of them — the joy and suffering lose 
nothing of effect by reason of the absence of 
the physical body. 

On the Astral Plane, the * * sinner ' ' who be- 
lieves in a hell of brimstone and flames, which 
awaits him by reason of ** the foul crimes 
done in his days of nature, ' ' is not disappoint- 



102 The Life Beyond Death 

ed. His beliefs supply the necessary environ- 
ment, and his conscience condemns him to 
the punishment in which he believes. Even 
if he has sought to disbelieve these things 
by the use of his reason, and still retains the 
subconscious memories of his childhood teach- 
ings or the traditions of his race, he will find 
himself in the same condition. He will 
undergo the traditional tortures and suffer- 
ing (all in his imagination of course) until he 
receives a valuable disciplinary lesson, the 
dim memories of which will haunt him in the 
next incarnation. This, of course, is an ex- 
treme case. There are many other degrees 
and grades of ** hells'' carried over to the 
Astral Plane by souls of various shades of 
religious belief. Each has the punishment 
which is best adapted to exert a deterring in- 
fluence and effect over him in his next life. 
The same is true of the ideal of ** heaven," 
The soul finds itself enjoying the bliss of the 
blessed, according to its own ideals, for the 
good deeds and acts it has to its credit in the 
infallible books of its memory. Inasmuch as .* 
no soul has been altogether *^bad,'' nor none 
absolutely **good,'' it follows that each soul 
has a taste both of reward and punishment, 



Astral Heavens and Hells 103 

according to its merits as determined by its 
awakened conscience. Or, stating it in another 
way, the conscience * * strikes an average ' ' for 
it, which average, likewise, agrees in detail 
with the prevailing belief of the soul. 

Those who in earth-life have deliberately 
brought themselves to the conviction that 
there is no ** hereafter'* for the soul, have a 
peculiar experience. They meet with their 
kind on a plane in which they imagine that 
they have been transplanted to another planet 
and are still in the flesh. And there they are 
made participants in a great drama of 
Karma, being made to suffer for the miseries 
which they have wrought upon others, and to 
enjoy blessings which they have bestowed 
upon others. They are not punished for the 
unbelief — that would be unthinkable injust- 
ice — but they learn the lesson of right and 
wi-ong in their own way. This experience, 
likewise, is purely mental, and arises merely 
from the expression in Astral manifestation 
of the memories of their earth-life, urged on 
by the awakened conscience which gives them 
'*an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," 
with a vengeance. 

Belief or disbelief in a future state, does 



104 The Life Beyond Death 

not alter the cosmic law of compensation and 
Astral *^ purgation.'' The laws of Karma 
cannot be defeated by a refusal to believe in 
a hereafter, nor a refusal to admit the dis- 
tinction between right and wrong. Every 
human being has, deep down under the sur- 
face though it may be, an intuitive realiz- 
ation of a survival of the soul ; and every in- 
dividual has a deep-seated consciousness of 
some sort of a moral code. And these sub- 
conscious beliefs and opinions come to the 
surface on the Astral Plane. 

Those advanced souls who have given us 
the best and highest reports of the life of the 
soul on ^Hhe other side,'' agree in informing 
us that the highest bliss, and the deepest sor- 
row, of the disembodied soul of intelligence 
and culture, comes in the one case from per- 
ceiving the effect of ^ the good actions and 
thoughts of its earth-life, and, in the other 
case, from a similar perception of the results 
of the evil thoughts and actions of its earth- 
life. When the eyes of the soul are cleared 
so that they may discern the tangled fabric 
of cause and effect, and follow up each par- 
ticular thread of its own insertion therein, 
it has in itself a heaven and a hell of greater 



Astral Heavens and Hells 105 

intensity than anything of which Dante ever 
dreamed. There is no joy of the disembodied 
sonl comparable to that experienced from 
perceiving the logical results of a right action 
and no sorrow equal to that of perceiving the 
result of evil action, with its sickening 
thought of *4t might have been otherwise.'* 
But, even these things pass away from the 
soul. In fact, they often occupy but a mo- 
ment of time, which seems to the soul as an 
eternity. There is no such thing as eternal 
bliss or eternal pain, on the Astral Plane. 
These things pass away, and the soul emerges 
once more on earth-life, to once more enroll 
itself in the School of Life, the Kindergarten 
of God, there to learn and re-learn its lessons. 
;' And remember, always, that both the heaven 
J and the hell of each and every soul, abides in ( 
' that soul itself. Each soul creates its own {^ 
heaVen and hell — for neither have any object- / 
ive existence. The heaven and hell of each 
soul is the result of its Karma, and is purely 
a mental creation of its own being. But the 
phenomena is none the less real to the soul, 
for this reason. There is nothing in its earth- 
life which ever seemed more real to it. And 
again, remember, that heaven and hell, on the 



106 The Life Beyond Death 

Astral Plane, are not given as bribe or pnnisb 
ment, respectively — but merely as a natural 
means of developing and unfolding the higher 
qualities and restraining the lower, to the end 
that the soul may advance on the Path. 

So, once more, we see that in the words 
quoted at the beginning of this chapter: 
**Each man is his own absolute law-^iver, the 
dispenser of glory or gloom to himself, the 
decreer of his own life, his reward, his punish- 
ment, '^ on the Astral Plane. 

But life on the Astral Plane does not con- 
sist entirely of heaven and hell. There are 
joys experienced which have naught to do 
with the good or evil deeds of earth-life, but 
which arise from the urge to express one's 
own creative faculties, and to exercise the 
intellect with increased power — the joys of 
expression and knowlege, beyond which mor- 
tal cannot hope to experience. In our next 
chapter we shall consider these phases of 
life on the Astral Plane. 



CHAPTER XII 
ASTRAL SELF-EXPRESSION 

It is one of the saddest features of earth- 
life that we find ourselves unable to express 
to the fullest the creative impulse, the artis- 
tic urge, the striving of the genius within us 
to unfold itself. After passing a certain 
place in the scale of life, the evolving soul 
finds within itself the ever present urge of 
the something within which is striving to ex- 
press and unfold itself into objective manifes- 
tation. It may be the craving to express in 
art, music, literature, invention ; or it may be 
the insistent desire to be at work remodeling 
the affairs of the world nearer to the souPs 
desire. In all of such cases, it is really the 
creative impulse at work, striving to ^^make 
things*' in objective form, in accordance 
with the pattern or model within the soul. 
And toward such expression, head, heart and 
hand is eager to work. 

But, alas, very few are able to realize in 
earth-life one tithe of what the soul dreams. 
107 



108 The Life Beyond Death 

The artistic instinct is ever hungering for 
perfect expression, and yet it is given but the 
crumbs that fall from the table. The soul is 
ever thirsting for progress and achievement, 
and yet it is given but the few drops that 
trickle from the fountain. If this one 
life were all — if these longings, cravings, de- 
sires, and hunger and thirst of the soul, de- 
pended only upon the possibilities of the one 
earth-life — then indeed would the moaning 
cry of the pessimists be justified, and the wail 
of the discouraged be justified. For, in fact, 
these impulses and cravings are but as the 
urge of the seed striving to break through 
its sheaths, that it may put forth stem, 
branch, blossom and fruit. And the seed can 
scarce expect to reach the blossom and fruit 
while it is in the earth. 

But, as the advanced occultist knows full 
well, these seed-desires are but the promise 
of the future blossom and fruit. The very 
fact of their existence is a proof of the pos- 
sibility — nay, the certainty — of their fulfill- 
ment. So far from being a cause of discour- 
agement, they should be regarded as a proph- 
ecy of future achievement and realization. 
It has been well said that ^4n every aspir- 



Astral Self -Expression 109 

ation there dwells the certainty of its own 
fulfillment/' These words seem like mock- 
ery to many, and, indeed, they would be mock- 
ery were the possibility of realization con- 
fined to the one particular earth-life in which 
they are manifested. But, to the soul which 
has advanced on the Path of Attainment suf- 
ficiently high that it may look back and down 
upon the planes of life beneath it, it is seen 
that these strivings of genius to express it- 
self are but the ** labor-pains of the soul,'' 
which must precede the future birth of the 
fruit of genius. 

On the Astral Plane these seeds of genius 
put forth stem and branch, and are prepared 
for the blossom and fruit of the incarnations 
ahead of it. In the highly concentrated 
state of the mind, in certain phases of the 
Astral life, the talents and genius of the in-^ 
dividual grow and develop very rapidly, and 
the next incarnation finds the individual 
ready and prepared to manifest the power 
which he has generated during his sojourn 
on the Astral. The soul may be said to re- 
ceive and store up energy while on the Astral, 
which will enable it to manifest heretofore 
undreamed of powers in the next earth-life. 



110 The Life Beyond Death 

A familiar example is that of the boy who is 
learning to skate, and who finds that he makes 
little progress during the afternoon. He goes 
to sleep that night, and forgets all abont 
the art of skating, but when he returns to the 
task the next day, lo! he finds that he has 
made wonderful progress. The majority of 
us have had similar experiences regarding 
our little tasks in life. We find that some- 
thing happens to us when we are asleep. 

The secret of the above-mentioned phen- 
omena is that, during the sleep of the boy, 
his sub-conscious or instinctive mind re- 
hearses the task until it has accomplished 
much in the direction of mastering it, and the 
next day it puts into practice that which it 
has learned during the night — but the con- 
scious mind is not aware of the process of 
learning. There are depths of the mind 
which take up these tasks of ours, and which 
while we are asleep and our objective con- 
scious faculties are resting, straighten out 
the troublesome kinks of performance, and 
practice the tasks to be performed the com- 
ing day. 

In the same way, the super-conscious (not 
the 5W& -conscious) faculties of the mind of 



Astral Self -Expression 111 

the soul practice and become proficient in the 
tasks of the next earth-life, as indicated by 
the urge of desire and the pangs of achieve- 
ment seeking birth. But, with this difference, 
the soul is fully conscious of the workings of 
the super-conscious faculties, and, in fact, ex- 
periences the greatest joy in the work of 
development and achievement. The heaven- 
world of those souls which are possessed of 
the desire to **do things'' — to create, to per- 
form, to make — is indeed a realm of bliss. 
•For there the soul finds itself able to mani- 
fest the things which were beyond it during 
the earth-life, and to express itself in a 
measure almost beyond the fondest dreams 
and hopes of the soul on earth. 

And this expression and manifestation is 
performed from the very love of the perform- 
ance — from the joy of work, the ecstacy of 
creative achievement — rather than from the 
hope of reward. On the Astral Plane, alone, 
can the soul find the conditions which are 
pictured in Kipling's lines: 

'* And only the Master shall praise us. 
And only the Master shall blame ; 
And no one shall work for money, 



112 The Life Beyond Death 

And no one shall work for fame ; 
But each for the joy of the working, 

And each in his separate star, 
Shall draw the Thing as he sees it 

For the God of Things as They are/* 

The same thing is true of the seeker after 
knowledge — the man to whom the exercise of 
the intellect is the greatest joy. Such a one 
finds the Books of Knowledge opened for 
many pages beyond those at which he was 
compelled to pause in earth-life. The phil- 
osopher, the scientist, the metaphysician, the 
naturalist — these find full exercise for their 
faculties on the Astral Plane. The library 
of the Cosmos — the laboratories of the uni- 
verse — are at their disposal, and they are 
made welcome there. They find their heart 's 
desire fulfilled in the opportunities afforded 
them on the Astral Plane. And, they go back 
to earth-life, when their time comes for re- 
incarnation, with stimulated intellect and in- 
creased reasoning power. What they have 
thus learned appears in the next life as ^* in- 
tuition. ' ' 

It is a fact well known to the advanced oc- 
cultist that great inventors, like Edison — 



Astral 8 elf -Expression 113 

great philosophers like Hegel, or Herbert 
Spencer — great scientists like Darwin or 
Huxley — who seemingly manifest intuitive 
knowledge of their subjects, are but mani- 
[festing on the material plane that which they 
have already acquired on the Astral as the 
fruition of desires and attempts made in 
previous incarnations. It is the common ex- 
perience of such geniuses, as related in their 
memoirs, that the majority of their greatest 
discoveries have come to them suddenly as 
if from a clear sky. But it is a rule of Nature 
that there is no blossom or fruit without the 
preceding seed — and this is true on the men- 
tal as well as on the physical plane. There 
is always a ** cause'' for the ** effect," in 
these cases. 

The struggling genius — nay, more, the one 
who feels that he or she could be a genius if 
that which is within could only be expressed 
— tl^ese souls will have their chance in the As- 
tral, and if the seed be well planted in the 
rich soil, of the soul, then in the next incarna- 
tion will the blossom and fruit appear. We 
may carry this idea with us, a little more 
clearly, perhaps, if we will make the following 
comparison : 



114 The Life Beyond Death 

I. The earth-life is like the phase of the 
crawling caterpillar, which feels within itself 
a something which it cannot express, and 
which it scarcely understands; 

II. The astral-life is like the phase of 
the chrysalis, in which the future gorgeous 
butterfly is being formed, and in which the 
colored wings already exist in Astral form; 

III. The reincarnated earth-life is like 
the phase of the butterfly, in which the ideal 
felt in the first stage and mentally expe- 
rienced in the second stage becomes fully 
manifest and active. 

The Law of Karma performs much of its 
work on the Astral Plane, for there the sale- | y^^^C 
material is plastic and non-resistant, the 
coarse sheaths of the body being absent. And 
this law is exact and unfailing in its oper- 
ations — it always brings the seed to fruition, 
and each seed brings forth only its own ap- 
propriate fruit : 

** Karma — all that total of a soul 
Which is the thing it did, the thoughts it had, 
The *self ' it wove with woof of viewless time 
Crossed on the warp invisible of acts. 



Astral Self -Expression 115 

Before beginning, and without an end, 
As space eternal and as surety sure. 
Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good, 
Only its laws endure. 



That which ye sow, ye reap. See yonder fields 
The sesamum was sesamum, the corn 
Was corn. The silence and the darkness knew ; 
So is a man's fate born. 



He cometh, reaper of the things he sowed, 
Sesamum, corn, so much cast in past birth ; 
And so much weed and poison stuff, which 

mar 
Him and the aching earth. 

If he labor rightly, rooting these. 

And planting wholesome seedlings where they 

grew. 
Fruitful and fair and clean the ground shall 

he, 
And rich the harvest due. ' ' 



CHAPTEE XIII 
ASTRAL PLANE OCCUPATION 

Regarding tlie question of occupation in 
the heaven-world — the Astral Plane — -the 
following from a well-known writer on the 
subject, Mr. A. P. Sinnett, will prove inter- 
esting and instructive : 

*^ Readers, however, who may grant that 
a purview of earthly life from heaven would 
render happiness in heaven impossible, may 
still doubt whether true happiness is possi- 
ble in the state of monotonous isolation now 
described. The objection is merely raised 
from the point of view of an imagination that 
cannot escape frpm its present surroundings. 
To begin with, about monotony. No one will 
complain of having experienced monotony 
during the minute, or moment, or half -hour, 
as it may have been, of the greatest happiness 
he may have enjoyed in life. Most people 
have had some happy moments, at all events, 
to look back to for the purpose of this com- 
parison ; and let us take even one such minute 
116 



Astral Plane Occupation 117 

or moment, too short to be open to the least 
suspicion of monotony, and imagine its sen- 
sations immensely prolonged without any ex- 
ternal events in progress to mark the lapse 
of time. There is no room, in such a con- 
dition of things, for the conception of weari- 
ness. The unalloyed, unchangeable sensation 
of intense happiness goes on and on, not 
forever^ because the causes which have pro- 
duced it are not infinite themselves, but for 
very long periods of time, until the efficient 
impulse has exhausted itself." 

Another high authority on the subject 
(quoted by Sinnett) says: *^The moral and 
spiritual qualities have to find a field in which 
their energies can expand themselves. De- 
vachan (the higher Astral Plane) is such a 
field. Hence, all the great planes of moral 
reform, of intellectual research into abstract 
principles of Nature — all the divine, spiritual, 
aspirations that so fill the brightest part of 
life, in Devachan come to fruition; and the 
abstract entity occupies itself in this inner 
world, also of its own preparation, in enjoy- 
ing the effects of the grand beneficial spirit- 
ual causes sown in life. It lives a purely 
and spiritually conscious existence — a dream 



118 The Life Beyond Death 

of realistic vividness — until Karma, being 
satisfied in that direction . . . the being 
moves into its next era of causes, either in this 
same world or another, according to its stage 
of progression. . . . Therefore, there is 
a * change of occupation,' a continual change, 
in Devachan. For that dream-life is but the 
fruition, the harvest-time, of those psychic 
germs dropped from the tree of physical ex- 
istence in our moments of dream and hope — 
fancy glimpses of bliss and happiness, stifled 
in an ungrateful social soil, blooming in 
the rosy dawn of Devachan, and ripening 
under its ever-fructifying sky. If man had 
but a single moment of ideal experience, 
not even then could it be, as erroneously 
supposed, the indefinite prolongation of that 
* single moment. ' That one note struck from 
the lyre of lifCj would form the key-note of 
the being's subjective state, and work out into 
numberless harmonic tones and semi-tones 
of psychic phantasmagoria. There all un- 
realized hopes, aspirations and dreams, be- 
come fully realized, and the dreams of the ob- 
jective become the realities of the subjective 
existence. And there, beyond the curtain of 
Maya, its vaporous and deceptive appear- 



Astral Plane Occupation 119 

ances are perceived by the Initiate, who has 
learned the great secret how to penetrate thus 
deep into the Arcana of Being. ' ' 

The same authority continues: **To ob- 
ject to this on the ground that one is thus 
'cheated by Nature,' and to call it *a delusive 
sensation of enjoyment which has no reality' 
is to show oneself utterly unfit to comprehend 
the conditions of life and being outside of 
our material existence. For how can the 
same distinction be made in Devachan — i. e. 
outside of the conditions of earth-life — be- 
tween what we call a reality, and a fictitious 
or an artificial counterfeit of the same, in 
this, our world. The same principle cannot 
apply to the two sets of conditions. * * * 
The spiritual soul has no substance * * * 
nor is it confined to one place with a limited 
horizon of perceptions around it. There- 
fore, whether in or out of its mortal body, it 
is ever distinct, and free from its limitations ; 
and, if we call its Devanchanic experiences 
* acheating of nature, ' then we should never be 
allowed to call 'reality' any of those purely 
abstract feelings that belong entirely to, and 
are reflected and assimilated by, our higher 
soul — such, for instance, as an ideal percep- 



120 The Life Beyond Death 

tion of the beautiful, profound pMlantliropy, 
love, etc., as well as every other purely 
spiritual sensation that during life fills our 
inner being with either immense pain or joy. '* 
Surely to the aspiring soul there is a far 
greater happiness in the thought of a heaven- 
world in which shall be worked out the prob- 
lems of this life — in which the creative im- 
pulse shall be given full opportunity for un- 
f oldment and development, to the end that in 
a newer and fuller life to come there shall be 
a putting forth of blossom and fruit, of 
heart's desires come true, of ideals made 
real — than in a heaven of the cessation of un- 
f oldment and creative endeavor, where all is 
finished, where there is nothing to be done or 
created, where there is no occupation but to 
fold hands end enjoy the bliss of eternal 
idleness. The creative instinct is from the 
very heart of Nature herself, the throbbing 
of her own life-blood, for Nature is ever at 
work, creating, doing, performing,, becom- 
ing, making, achieving — forever, and ever, 
and ever, on, and on, and on, without ceas- 
ing, rising from greater to greater achieve- 
ment, as the aeons of time fly by. Verily 
this alone is life, and: 



Astral Plane Occupation 121 

**A11 other life is living death, a land where 

none but phantoms dwell; 
^*A wind, a sound, a breath, a voice; the tink- 
ling of the Camel 's bell. ' ' 

And yet so grounded in materiality is the 
world of men, that they would speak of the 
heaven- wo rid of the higher Astral Plane as 
a mirage, a mere dream, a phantasm. They 
consider nothing *^real" unless it is on the 
material plane. Poor mortals, they do not 
realize that, at the last, there can be nothing 
more unreal, more dreamlike, more transi- 
tory, more phantasmal, than this very world 
of material substance. They are not aware 
that in it there is absolutely no permanence 
— that the mind itself is not quick enough to 
catch a glimpse of material reality, for, be- 
fore the mind can grasp a material fact, the 
fact has merged into something else. 

The world of mind, and still more true, the 
world of spirit, is far more real than is the 
world of materiality. From the spiritual 
viewpoint there is nothing at all real but 
Spirit; and matter is regarded as the most 
fleeting and unreal of all illusory appear- 
ances. From the same viewpoint, the higher 



122 The Life Beyond Death 

in the scale one rises above the material 
plane, the more real becomes the phenomena 
experienced. Therefore, it follows, that the 
experiences of the soul on the higher Astral 
Plane are not only not unreal in nature, but, 
by comparison, are far more real than the ex- 
periences of life on the material plans. As 
the writers just quoted have well said. Nature 
is not cheated on the Astral Plane — but Na- 
ture herself manifests with more real effect 
on that plane than on the material plane. 
This is a hard saying for the uninitiated — but 
the advanced soul becomes more and more 
convinced of its truth every succeeding hour 
of its experience. 

It is a grievous error to regard the ex- 
periences of the soul in the heaven-world as 
little more than a * Splaying at reality,'' as 
some materialistic critics has termed it. One 
has but to turn to the experiences even of the 
earth-life to see that some of the world's best 
work is performed in the hours other than 
those employed in the actual fashioning of 
the things. There are times in the everyday 
life of the most active workers of the world 
which may be called *Hhe ideal period" — that 
is, the time in which the mind creates and 



Astral Plane Occupation 123 

forms that which is afterward manifested in 
material form. There has never been a 
building, nor a bridge, nor any other great 
work of human hands, erected, unless first it 
has been created in the mind of some man or 
men. It has had its first existence in the 
creative faculties of the mind — the material 
building is merely the reproduction of the 
mental creation. This, being remembered, 
which shall we consider the real creation, the 
mental or the material? 

The soul, in its activities on the higher 
Astral Plane, performs a work similar to that 
of the mind of the inventor, designer, builder, 
when it fashions and designs that which will 
afterward be objectified in material form. It 
may be called the period or stage of forming 
the model, or pattern, or mould, which shall 
afterward serve for the material manifesta- 
tiofi. Ignorance, alone, can conceive of such 
a stage of existence as being a * * mere dream. ' ' 
Verily, the scales of matter serve to blind the 
eyes of man, so that he sees the real as the un- 
real — the unreal as the real. The higher in 
the scale of existence the soul rises, the more 
real are its experiences — the nearer it ap- 
proaches matter, in its descent of the scale, 



124 The Life Beyond Death 

the more unreal are its experiences. Ah, 
Maya I Maya ! thou mother of illusion, when 
shall we learn to rise above thy spell ! Those 
who play in the clay, are besmeared by it, and 
can see nothing finer and higher than its 
sticky substance. 



CHAPTER XIV 
ASTEAL COMPANIONSHIP 

There is a question which ever comes to the 
mind of those who indulge in speculations re- 
garding **the other side" — that question 
which is voiced in the words of the familiar 
old hymn: ** Shall we know each other 
there r' This query is rooted in the very 
heart of human love and affection. Heaven, 
even if it furnished every other joy and satis- 
faction, would not be heaven to the average 
person if it did not also furnish companion- 
ship and association with those loved in earth 
life. The soul instinctively craves for the so- 
ciety not only of those close to it by ties of 
the love of man and woman, but also of those 
to which it is bound by the relationship of 
parent and child; brother and sister; friend 
and friend. Without this assurance of con- 
tinued companionship and association, heaven 
would seem a very bleak and cold place to 
the average human soul. 

We are glad that the Yogi teachers have 
125 



126 The Life Beyond Death 

been very explicit and plain upon this subject, 
and that their students may find that this 
hope and desire of the human heart has a full 
and rich realization in the facts of life on the 
Astral Plane. Not only do we **know each 
other there, ' ^ but we are naturally bound by 
Astral bonds of attraction to those whom we 
love ; and to those with whom we are in sym- 
pathy, even though we had never known 
them in earth life. More than this, there is, 
on the Astral Plane, the possibility of a far 
nearer and closer companionship between 
kindred souls than earth-life ordinarily wit- 
nesses. With the dropping and discarding 
of the sheaths of the physical body, the soul 
becomes capable of a far closer relation to 
kindred souls than it ever experienced on 
the physical plane. The Astral fires having 
burnt up the dross of the lower attractions, 
the soul is able to function on much higher 
planes of association. On the Astral Plane, 
soul may meet soul in close communion and 
comradeship and the dreams and longings of 
earth-life, which were found impossible of 
realization on that plane, now become the or- 
dinary incidents of the new life of the soul. 
That for which the soul has longed for in vain 



Astral Companionship 127 

on earth, now is found in its richest fruition. 
To realize just what this means, it is neces- 
sary but to think of the highest ideals enter- 
tained by the soul, in earth-life, regarding the 
relationships between human beings. Though 
these ideals are seldom lived up to in earth- 
life, nevertheless they abide with the soul con- 
stantly, and it is one of the tragedies of earth- 
life that these ideals always seem **too good 
to be true. ' ' The love of man and woman, of 
the right kind, always has as its background 
this ideal affection and desire, and yet how 
seldom does the ideal escape being dragged 
in the mud. The relationship between parent 
and child, between brothers and sisters, be- 
tween friends, seldom is found to approach 
the ideal which dwells ever in the human 
heart. So true is this ideal — so constant is 
its presence — that when, in earth-life, we see 
a companionship which seems even partially 
to cdmply with the ideal requirements, our 
deepest feelings are touched. In fiction, in 
poetry, in song, in the drama, we find that the 
picture of the realization of this ideal touches 
springs of emotion and sympathy which lift 
us up to higher planes of thought and life. 
What then must be the joy, the bliss, the hap- 



>wv 



128 The Life Beyond Death 

piness, tlie satisfaction, of a life on a plane 
of being in which this expression is the only 
natural one, and where the ideal becomes the 
real i-s- actual expression? 

Yes, we do, indeed, ^^know each other 
there. ' ' Not only the * ^ other ' ' whom we may * 
have in mind, but also many *^ others'' with 
whom we are in natural soul harmony. Those 
who are bound together by the bond of earth 
love, relationship, and friendship — providing 
that there really is a bond of attachment of 
any degree between them — have full oppor- 
tunity to manifest their mutual affection and 
harmonic attraction on the higher Astral 
Plane. The highest that the human imagina- 
tion can picture as possible in such compan- 
ionship, is but as a faint shadow to the actual 
reality of the experience. It is useless to at- 
tempt to paint a picture of these scenes and 
relationships, for there are no words with 
which to express the truth. Th.e answer to the 
inquiry must necessarily be: that each soul 
that asks the question turn its mental gaze 
inward, and find the picture, painted in the 
imagination, of the highest possible bliss that 
would be possible in such a state and condi- 
tion, and then consider that even this imag- 



Astral Companionship 129 

inary picture falls a thousand times short of 
the reality. 

It is only in the harmony of music, or the 
rhythmic cadences of the best poetry, or the 
lines of some great work of art, that the earth- 
dwelling soul may catch a glimpse of the truth 
of Love on the higher Astral Plane. These 
things at times cause to rise in the soul faint 
hints of what the soul actually experiences on 
those higher planes of being. This is one of 
the reasons why music, art, and poetry are 
able at times to lift us above the material en- 
vironment in which we are dwelling. In the 
flashes of Cosmic Conscience which occasion- 
ally come to souls of spiritual enlightenment, 
there is included a realization of this feature 
of the association of souls on the higher 
planes. Well has the Western poet ex- 
pressed the difficulty of stating, in ordinary 
words, the truth of this realization of the 
truth — in broken measures and stammering 
tongue : 

**As in a swoon, one instant. 
Another sun, ineffable, full dazzles me, 
And all the orbs I knew, and brighter, un- 
known orbs, 



130 The Life Beyond Death 

One instant of the future land, Heaven's 
land. 



I cannot be awake, for nothing looks to me 

as it did before, 
Or else I am awake for the first time, and all 

before has been a mean sleep. 



When I try to tell the best I find, I cannot ; 
My tongue is ineffectual, on its pivots, 
My breath will not be obedient to its organs, 
I become a dumb man. ' ' 

— Whitman. 

^* Words from a man who speaks from that 
life must sound vain to those who do not dwell 
in the same thought on their own part. I 
dare not speak for it. My words do not carry 
its august sense; they fall short and cold. 
Only itself can inspire whom it will, and be- 
hold ! their speech shall be lyrical, and sweet, 
and universal as the rising of the wind. Yet 
I desire, even by profane words, if sacred I 
may not use, to indicate the heaven of this 
deity, and to report what hints I have col- 
lected of the transcendent simplicity and 
energy of the Highest Law. ' ' — Emerson, 



Astral Companionship 131 

The difficulty in explaining to the earth- 
dweller the nature and character of the com- 
panionship of the higher planes of the Astral, 
is that his mind insists upon thinking in 
terms of place, whereas there is no ** place*' 
on the Astral — merely conditions and states, 
as we have explained. To dwell in the * * same 
place ' * as the loved one, on the Astral Plane, 
means simply to dwell in the same state or 
condition of being, and thus be brought into 
a closer relationship, a greater degree of 
nearness, than nearness in space can furnish. 
There is a greater *4n touchness' by reason 
of this harmony of Astral condition than the 
earth-dweller can imagine. Only the ad- 
vanced soul can begin to comprehend this 
mystery of Astral Life. It can be pictured 
only faintly by reference to the state of soul- 
ful * * oneness ' ' experienced at times by lovers, 
when it seems as if the limitations of the flesh 
have been transcended, and the two souls 
have blended into one. This is far more than 
mere nearness in space or place — and yet 
even this but faintly indicates the ideal con- 
dition of the Astral Life. 

It may be questioned by some, how souls 
enjoying this companionship, if they happen 



132 The Life Beyond Death 

to dwell on different planes of Astral being, 
can be in the same state or condition in which 
the experience is rendered possible. The an- 
swer is simple to one who is familiar with the 
highest occult truths. It is this : the soul on 
the higher planes feels the sympathetic at- 
traction of the soul on the lower plane, and, 
answering it, establishes a psychic connection 
(akin to a highly exalted form of telepathy) 
between the two, and thus renders possible 
the experience of the closest mental and 
spiritual relationship and companionship, 
which experience far transcends the compan- 
ionship of two souls in the flesh. Moreover, 
as we have explained in a previous chapter, 
the soul on the higher plane may actually 
visit, with all of its soul-being, another soul on 
a plane lower than itself. In this, and other 
ways, companionship between disembodied 
souls of the Astral Plane is manifested. 
There is no ^^onesomeness," or loneliness 
for souls who crave sympathy on the Astral. 
There is nothing that is high, and ennobling, 
in earth-life, that has not its magnified cor- 
respondence on the Astral Plane — only the 
dross being left behind. 
There is a natural law which operates on 



Astral Companionship 133 

the Astral Plane, as well as upon the material 
plane, and this law regulates and controls 
everything on that plane. The disembodied 
soul does not part with Nature, when it leaves 
the earth-life — but, rather it rises to a plane 
of Nature which is fuller, richer, and sweeter 
in every way than the best of which the earth- 
dwelling soul dreams. The dross of material- 
ity burned away by the Astral vibrations, the 
soul blossoms and bears spiritual fruit in the 
new life. There is one word, which, above 
all others, expresses the spirit-meaning, and 
purpose of the higher planes — and the phe- 
nomena thereof — that word is LOVE ! And 
that Love is the *^ Perfect Love which casteth 
out all Fear'' — and its blossom is Joy — and 
its fruit is Peace I 



CHAPTER XV 
** SPIRIT COMMUNICATION'' 

To the mind of the advanced occultist there 
are few things more deplorable than the con- 
fusion ; half-truths commingled with untruth ; 
false doctrine; false conclusions; some con- 
cerned with the subject of ** spirit communica- 
tion ' ' in the mind of the Western world. And 
yet, this confusion, as deplorable as it may 
be, has served, nevertheless, to attract the 
attention of thinking people to the subject, 
and to lead them to further investigation of 
the matter. Even the fraudulent practices 
which have been such a scandal in the history 
of spiritualism in the Western world, as dis- 
gusting and revolting as they have been to 
the mind of thoughtful persons, have served 
to bring into relief the real truth behind the 
general phenomena of spiritualism. 

Leaving entirely out of consideration the 
fraudulent, and semi-fraudulent, phenomena 
which masquerades as *^ spirit communica- 
tion,'' the subject of the communication be- 
134 



*' spirit Communication'^ 135 

tween persons in the flesh and souls out of 
the flesh may be divided into two general 
classes, i. e. the lower and the higher, respec- 
tively. The lower class is composed of (1) 
cases in which disembodied souls, of a low 
order — the so-called ** earth-bound " souls — 
manifest their presence to persons still in the 
flesh; or (2) cases of the animation of 
** Astral shells.'' The higher class of the 
phenomena of ^* spirit communication," so- 
called, consists of cases in which the souls 
on the higher planes of the Astral manifest 
their presence to persons in the flesh. 

The soul on the higher Astral planes, 
dwells in the idealistic condition, concerning 
itself not with the affairs of the world it has 
left behind it. It, of course, maintains a 
sympathetic connection with those near and 
dear to it by ties of love or friendship who 
have been left behind on the material plane, 
but such sympathetic connection is entirely 
of a psychic or spiritual nature, and has no 
connections with nearness in space, or phys- 
ical proximity. The ties and bonds between 
the disembodied soul and the soul still in the 
flesh in earth-life may be thought of as spirit- 
ual filaments — something like a transcendent 



136 The Life Beyond Death 

form of telepathic rapport. When the dis- 
embodied soul is thinking of the loved one 
on earth, the latter frequently experiences a 
feeling akin to the physical nearness of the 
disembodied soul, but this merely arises from 
the sensing of the mental and spiritual rap- 
port of which we have just spoken. In the 
same way, the disembodied soul experiences 
a sense of ^^call" or message from the person 
in the flesh when the latter is thinking in- 
tently of the former. 

So far as this continuance of the feelings 
of love and affection between the separated 
souls is concerned, nothing but good can be 
said, for the soul in the flesh is comforted 
and strengthened by the feeling of rapport 
and nearness of the disembodied soul on the 
Astral Plane; and the disembodied soul ex- 
periences pleasure and joy just as it would 
on earth-life by the physical nearness of the 
loved one. This relationship is a peculiarly 
sacred one, and is enjoyed by many persons 
in the flesh, although they may have but little 
to say regarding it to others who would not 
understand. Those who have had this ex- 
perience will recognize just what is meant by 
these words, when they read them. Others, 



*' Spirit Communication'* 137 

who have not had these experiences, can 
understand them only by reference to the 
greatest feeling of soul-nearness they ever 
have experienced in earth-life. It is, indeed, 
a communion of soul with soul, almost ap- 
proaching the perfection of soul-communion 
on the Astral Plane in some of its aspects, 
although always leaving a something lacking 
from the very nature of the case. We wish 
to be distinctly understood as having nothing 
but good to say regarding this form of 
* * spirit-communication ' ' between persons 
bound by ties of love and friendship, one out 
of the flesh and the other still in earth life. 
What we shall now proceed to condemn, is 
something of an entirely different nature. 

Advanced occultists are practically unani- 
mously agreed that the practice of recalling 
the attention of disembodied spirits for mere 
entertainment, curiosity, or general **exhibi- 
tioh*' purposes is most deplorable. The best 
authorities condemn the practice in the 
strongest terms. In the first place, the result 
is always unsatisfactory, for very good and 
sufficient occult reasons. In the second 
place, the effect of such recalling is apt 
to be detrimental to the disembodied soul, by 



138 The Life Beyond Death 

reason of withdrawing its spiritual attention 
from the things of the higher planes, and 
turning them back to the things of the ma- 
terial plane, thus retarding its development 
and unfoldment, and also confusing its mind. 
It is akin to directing the mind of the grow- 
ing child back to the things of its prenatal 
condition, if such a thing were possible. 
And, to the soul which does not understand 
the nature and character of its Astral Life 
(and none but the most advanced souls so do 
understand) the mixing of the things and 
phenomena of the material and Astral Planes 
is most perplexing, confusing, and distract- 
ing. The soul should be left to unfold natur- 
ally on its new plane, and not called back to 
earth to satisfy curiosity or to furnish enter- 
tainment. The result arising from the latter 
course is akin to that which would arise were 
one to persist in pulling up a plant each day 
to see whether its roots were sprouting and 
growing. 

Another form of recalling the disembodied 
soul — that of calling it back to comfort 
and inform loving friends and relatives — is 
scarcely less undesirable. The disembodied 
soul, drawn back by the pull upon its sympa- 



*' Spirit Communication^^ 139 

thetic bonds of connection, comes back like a 
person walking in his sleep, for such is almost 
precisely its condition. Sleep walking is not 
a desirable thing to induce in persons on 
earth, and is no better when it is induced in 
a disembodied soul. It comes from its Astral 
experiences in a dazed condition, and gives 
but little satisfaction to those recalling it, 
and really suffers a confusing and perplexing 
experience itself. Those who have had ex- 
periences with the recalling of disembodied 
souls (where the phenomena is genuine) will 
readily remember the dazed and generally 
confused answers given, and the generally 
unsatisfactory results obtained even under 
the best conditions. The practice of recall- 
ing souls from the Astral Plane is a clear per- 
version of Nature's processes, and the result 
is never satisfactory. This practice is never 
justified, and the best authorities severely 
condemn it. The glimpse into the nature and 
condition of the Astral Plane life, which we 
have given you in this book, should be suf- 
ficient for you to see clearly the reason of this 
opinion, and the cause of the condemnation. 
It is true that souls on the Astral Plane, 
sometimes, under stress of strong memories 



140 The Life Beyond Death 

or worries regarding those they have left be- 
hind, have returned voluntarily to the plane 
of earth-life, and have made themselves 
known to persons dwelling thereon — even to 
the extent of actual materialization, at times. 
These cases are unusual, but are sufficiently 
frequent to be noted in this connection. In 
such cases, the strength of the desire of the 
disembodied soul has caused it to take on ob- 
jective form to the senses of those to whom it 
appears, just as a very strong telepathic im- 
pression will take on objective form. But, 
even in such cases, the poor worried soul 
gradually passes beyond the attraction of 
earth-life, and ceases to return to its former 
scenes, but begins to live out its normal 
Astral Life in accordance with Nature 's laws 
and plans. 

We know that in uttering these truths we 
are bringing disappointment, and possibly 
resentment, to the minds of some in earth-life 
who are fond of the thought that they are in 
frequent communication with the souls of 
their departed friends and loved ones. But 
the truth is the truth, and we are assured that 
a proper understanding of the subject will 
reveal to such persons that the highest love 



*^ Spirit Communication^^ 141 

for those who have gone before will consist 
in doing that which is best for those loved 
ones, so that they will not persist in sacri- 
ficing this best interest for the selfish purpose 
of temporary satisfaction on their own part. 
Nay, more, the * * satisfaction ' ' is never really 
satisfying — there is always the consciousness 
that there is something missing, something 
lacking. 

True love consists in giving, rather than in 
getting. And, is not this true in the matter 
of communication with those loved ones on 
**the other side?" Is it not a higher and 
nobler thing to send them loving thoughts 
and sympathy, cheering and encouraging 
them in the unf oldment on the higher planes, 
than to endeavor to drag them back to the 
lower plane of materiality for the sake of 
hearing them say that they are happy and 
that all is all right with them, and, perhaps, 
to mumble some semi-coherent platitudes in 
the manner of a somnambulist? And is it 
not more worthy of ourselves, who are dwell- 
ing in the bonds of the flesh, to raise the plane 
of our communion with those on the other 
side to their own higher plane of being, and 
to commune with them along the lines of 



142 The Life Beyond Death 

spiritual understanding and rapport — ^in the 
silence and without spoken words — on the 
plane where soul may speak to soul without 
the medium of words, and without the neces- 
sity of physical presence? Think over these 
things, and let your soul speak the truth to 
you from its inmost heart — be assured that 
the answer will be one with the truths of the 
highest authorities. 



CHAPTER XVI 
EARTH BOUND SOULS 

In the works upon the subject of the Astral 
Plane, particularly if the work be by one of 
the old authorities, there will be found many 
references to what are called ^^earth-bound'' 
souls. As a rule, these references are to the 
lower order of souls, which refuse to lift their 
mental gaze beyond the things and scenes of 
earth, and which haunt their old scenes of 
activity and life, finding therein the only 
pleasure that is possible to them in their de- 
graded condition. But, in this considera- 
tion, we must not neglect a mention of a 
higher order of souls who, unfortunately, are 
slow to break their earthly bonds, and who 
cling closely to those who have been left be- 
hind ,them. Let us consider this last class 
for a moment. 

It sometimes happens that a soul who is 

naturally fitted for the normal life on the 

higher Astral Planes, is so tied and attached 

to matters concerning earth-life, that after 

143 



144 The Life Beyond Death 

its awakening from the soul-slumber it at first 
refuses to participate in the normal Astral 
existence, but, instead, busies itself with the 
affairs of earth-life which it should have left 
behind it. This unfortunate condition arises 
generally from some sense of unperformed 
duty, remorse, or anxiety about the welfare 
of some loved one left behind. In such cases 
it actually hovers in space around the pres- 
ence of the person or place in which it is in- 
terested, and, under extraordinary psychic 
conditions it may actually make itself visible 
to the senses of persons in the flesh. 

To this class belong the poor afflicted souls 
which wander about, haunting the scene of 
their earthly misdeeds, their remorse causing 
them to make vain endeavors to undo or atone 
for their misdeeds. Of course, these unfor- 
tunate souls are not fully ** wide-awake** 
on the Astral Plane, neither are they wide- 
awake on the earth-life plane. Instead, they 
act like somnambulists, on either plane, fail- 
ing to partake of the normal life of either 
phase of existence. Akin to these are those 
worried and tormented souls who feel that 
they have left some duty or task unfulfilled, 
and who in a somnambulistic condition hover 



Earth Bound Souls 145 

around their former scenes of life, endeavor- 
ing dreamily to set matters right. A third 
class is composed of a few who are so at- 
tached personally to sonls left behind in the 
flesh, that they brood over the loved persons, 
jmpotently striving to aid and guide them. 

In all of these cases, there is but one duty 
for those in the flesh to perform — and that 
duty is plainly marked. This duty consists 
in mentally advising the poor souls that their 
proper scene of activity is on the Astral 
Plane; that their duty demands that they 
cease brooding and hovering over earth 
scenes ; and that they yield themselves to the 
upward attraction, rise to their proper plane 
of Astral existence, and enjoy the blessings 
thereof. Those who are conscious of the 
presence of disembodied souls of this type 
should not shrink from this duty, no matter 
how much it may pain them to instruct the 
disembodied soul in this way. It is like talk- 
ing to a young child, in the majority of cases, 
(owing to the semi-sleep condition of the 
earth-bound soul of this type). Although 
the soul may grieve and weep like a child, 
like the child it should be bidden to do its 
duty and to go to its spiritual abode. This 



146 The Life Beyond Death 

advice will often be heeded by the earth- 
bound soul, and it will yield to the upward at- 
traction, and cease its troubled existence. 
However, in time, even without such advice, 
the attraction of the higher spheres will pre- 
vail, and the soul will rise to its rightful place 
on the Astral. We caution everyone against 
encouraging the earth-bound soul to remain. 
It is like encouraging the unborn child to 
remain in the womb, or the unfolding butter- 
fly to remain in the chrysallis stage. No 
good comes from encouraging a violation of 
Nature's laws, on any plane of existence, in- 
cluding the Astral. 

The lower class of earth-bound souls be- 
long to an entirely diiferent category from 
those just mentioned. This lower class is 
composed of souls of a very low degree of 
spiritual development — those in which ani- 
mality is predominant, and brutish material- 
ity the characteristic emotional attribute. 
These souls are considered as ** earth- 
bound" by reason of the fact that the attrac- 
tion of the material earth-plane so overbal- 
ances the urge of the upward attraction that 
the latter is more than neutralized, and the 
soul lives on a plane as near the material 



Earth Bound Souls 147 

plane as is possible to it. In fact, the lower 
planes of the Astral inhabited by this class of 
souls is so little removed from the material 
plane that it may be spoken of as almost a 
transition stage between the material and the 
astral plane — a blending of the two. It is as 
if a very thin veil were placed between this 
plane and the scenes of material life — a tan- 
talizingly thin veil it is to these low souls — so 
that while these souls may not actually parti- 
cipate in the earthly affairs, they may yet be 
dimly conscious of them. 

These low earth-bound souls, as a rule con- 
fine their earth visitations and brooding to 
the actual scenes which have attracted them 
in earth-life. And these souls take a fiendish 
delight in trying to influence those of their 
own kind still in the flesh, when in a muddled 
condition, urging them to fresh infamies and 
often to actual crimes. In some extreme 
case's these low souls have been known 
actually to seek their own discarded Astral 
shell, or even that of another of their kind, 
and by a great effort cause it to materialize 
for a short time in objective form as a 
*' ghost. '* The nature of these entities 
changes but little by their transition to the 



148 The Life Beyond Death 

Astral, and they take the same delight in 
** rough-house * ' performances, practical 
jokes, etc., as in their days in the flesh. 
Many instances of ghostly appearances, the 
throwing about of physical objects, etc., have 
been due to this class of disembodied earth- 
bound souls. They always may be dismissed 
and caused to disappear by the person in the 
flesh showing them that he understands their 
real nature, and bidding them begone. A 
bold front, and authoritative command, 
coupled with words showing that their pre- 
tenses are *^seen through'' will always rout 
these creatures, and send them back where 
they belong, crestfallen and abashed. 

Another favorite amusement of a certain 
class of this kind of low disembodied souls, is 
that of appearing in Astral form, by taking 
advantage of an Astral shell, in spiritualistic 
seances, or other gatherings in which the 
psychic conditions are so sufficiently strong 
and favorable as to aid in the materialization. 
In such cases these creatures often impu- 
dently strive to impersonate other souls, 
either of some friend or relative of some one 
present, or else of some historical character. 
Anyone who has ever attended spiritualistic 



Earth Bound Souls 149 

seances and seen ** George Washington," or 
** Julius Caesar" appear and converse in the 
tone and words of the Bowery, of White- 
chapel, will readily understand the reason 
thereof. A kaowledge of this fact will serve 
to throw light on many perplexing phases of 
psychic phenomena. 

These lower class souls, however, spend 
but a short term on the Astral Plane, and 
very soon pass on to reincarnation in sur- 
roundings corresponding with their natures, 
and to which they are attracted by spiritual 
laws. Their whole attraction being toward 
the physical and the material, there is noth- 
ing to hold them on the Astral Plane, and 
their abode there is of very brief duration, in 
the majority of cases. And, yet, even in the 
very worst and most brutal person, there is 
always a little of the good, and a spark of 
spiritual glow, which brightens a little dur- 
ing each visit to the Astral Plane. And, in 
the course of time, this little spark is suffi- 
ciently kindled to manifest a tiny blaze, which 
lights the way of the poor soul and illumines 
the road toward higher things. So that even 
among these poor entities there is at least a 
certain degree of hope and promise. But the 



150 The Life Beyond Death 

majority are degenerated and fallen souls — 
descended from a once higher state — who, 
if they fail to profit by the pains of the ma- 
terial life, are apt to tend still further down- 
ward until kind Nature wipes them out as 
independent entities, and resolves them back 
to their original spiritual elements. 

There are sub-planes of the Astral so low 
and degraded that we hesitate to mention 
them. They are inhabited by the very low- 
est and most degraded and degenerate souls 
— souls which are on the sure descent to an- 
nihilation, being unfit to serve as carriers of 
the sacred plane. Of the details of these sub- 
planes, we shall not speak at this place. 
Enough to quote the words of two distin- 
guished occultists, one of a former age, and 
one of to-day. The old sage said of these 
sub-planes: **What manner of place is this 
I see. It hath no water. It hath no air. It 
hath no light. It hath no foundation. It is 
unfathomably deep. It is as black as the 
blackest night. ' * The latter-day investigator 
says: **Most students find the investigation 
of this section an extremely unpleasant task 
for there appears to be a sense of density and 
gross materiality about it which is indescrib- 



Earth Bound Souls 151 

ably loathsome to tlie liberated Astral body, 
causing the sense of pushing its way through 
some black viscous fluid, while the inhabitants 
and influences there are unusually undesir- 
able." 

It should scarcely be necessary to warn 
persons not to dabble in psychic phenomena 
of a material character, which brings them 
more or less into contact with these lower 
planes of the Astral. But, nevertheless, we 
do wish to set forth this warning in this place, 
just as we have elsewhere in our works. For 
there is always the temptation and fascina- 
tion of the unknown for many persons, usu- 
ally those who are not familiar with the phe- 
nomena of the Astral Plane. Such persons, 
like **fools, rush in where angels fear to 
tread, ' ' and attract to themselves all sorts of 
undesirable Astral entities and conditions. 
Our general advice on this, subject is: keep 
th6 mind fixed on the higher truths of the 
spirit, and the higher life of the soul; and 
turn the face resolutely away from the lower 
forms of psychic phenomena; in fact, do not 
seek ** phenomena" at all, but seek ever the 
Truth which, when known, makes all other 



152 The Life Beyond Death 

things clear. Seek ever the sunshine of 
Spirit, and avoid the baleful glare of the 
psychic moon. 



CHAPTER XVII 
ASTRAL SHELLS 

We would be neglecting the task to which 
we have set ourselves in this book, were we 
to omit all mention of a peculiar phenomenon 
of the Astral Plane which causes much con- 
fusion to all beginners in the investigation of 
psychic phenomena. We allude to what have 
aptly been called '^Astral Shells,'' the worn- 
out Astral bodies of the souls who have awak- 
ened from the soul-slumber of the Astral 
Plane. These worn-out garments of the soul 
are frequently mistaken for the soul itself, 
and much confusion has arisen by reason of 
this mistake. 

Each human entity on earth-life has, in ad- 
dition to the physical body, a finer and more 
subtle form of body, which is called the Astral 
Body (sometimes called '^the etheric double," 
known to the Hindus as the Linga Sharira). 
This Astral body is an exact counterpart of 
the physical body, and, in fact, is the finer 
model upon which the physical body is 
153 



154 The Life Beyond Death 

moulded or overlaid. Upon the departure of 
the soul from the physical body, it carries the 
Astral body with it as its vehicle, and dwells 
in it during the soul-sleep, discarding it only 
when it awakens from the soul-slumber and 
passes on to the higher states or conditions 
of the Astral. The Astral body, thus dis- 
carded by the soul, then becomes what is 
known to occultists as an ** Astral shell." 

In a previous work, we have spoken as fol- 
lows of the ** Astral shell," after it has been 
discarded by the soul: ^*The Astral body 
exists for some time after the death of the 
person to whom it belongs, and under certain 
circumstances, it is visible to living persons, 
and is by them called a * ghost. ' The * * Astral 
shell," which is sometimes seen after it has 
been sloughed o:ff by the soul which has 
passed on, is in such cases nothing more than 
a corpse of finer matter than its physical 
counterpart. In such cases it is possessed of 
no life or intelligence, and is nothing more 
than a cloud seen in the sky bearing a resem- 
blance to the human form. It is a shell, noth- 
ing more. . . . When discarded by the 
soul it begins to slowly disintegrate. . . . 
It floats around in the lower Astral atmos- 



Astral Shells 155 

phere, until finally it is dissolved into its orig- 
inal elements. It seems to have a peculiar 
attraction toward its late physical counter- 
part, and will often return to the neighbor- 
hood of the discarded physical body, and dis- 
integrate with it. Persons of psychic sight, 
either normal or influenced by fear or similar 
emotions, frequently see these *^ Astral 
shells ' ' floating around graveyards, over bat- 
tle-fields, etc., and mistake them for the 
* spirits' of departed persons, whereas they 
are no more the real souls of the persons 
than are the physical bodies beneath the 
ground. ' ' 

** These * Astral shells' may be * galvanized' 
into a semblance of life by coming in contact 
with the vitality of some ^medium,' the prana 
of the latter animating it, and the sub-con- 
scious mentality of the medium causing it to 
manifest signs of life and partial intelligencei 
At ^ome of the seances of the mediums, these 
astral shells are materialized by means of 
the vitality of the medium, and are made to 
talk in a stupid, disconnected way with those 
around, but it is not the person himself talk- 
ing, but a mere shell animated by the life 
principle of the medium and the ^circle,' and 



156 The Life Beyond Death 

acting and talking like an automaton. There 
are, of course, other forms of ' spirit return, * 
but investigators of spiritualistic phenomena 
should beware of confounding these * Astral 
shells' with the real soul of their departed 
friends. ' ' 

A leading authority on the subject has 
written of the ** Astral shell,'' as follows: 
**At death it is disembodied for a brief 
period, and, under some abnormal conditions, 
may even be temporarily visible to the exter- 
nal sight of still living persons. Under such 
conditions it is taken of course for the ghost 
of the departed persons. Spectral appari- 
tions may sometimes be occasioned in other 
ways, but the third principle (the Astral 
Body) when that results in a visible phe- 
nomenon, is a mere aggregation of molecules 
in a peculiar state, having no life or con- 
sciousness of any kind whatever. It is no 
more than a cloud-wreath in the sky which 
happens to settle into the semblance of some 
animal form. Broadly speaking, the linga 
^arira never leaves the body except at death, 
/ case. When seen at all, and this can but 
V nor migrates far from the body even in that 



Astral Shells 157 

rarely occur, it can only be seen near where 
the physical body lies. 

** . . . It is a mistake to speak of 
consciousness, as we understand the feeling 
in life, attaching to the * Astral shell' or rem- 
nant ; but, nevertheless, a certain spurious re- 
semblance may be awakened in that shell, and 
without having any connection with the real 
consciousness all the while growing in 
strength and vitality in the spiritual sphere. 
There is no power on the part of the shell of 
taking on and assimilating new ideas and 
intiating courses of action on the basis of 
those new ideas. But there is in the shell a 
survival of volitional impulses imparted to 
it during life. . . . It is liable to be gal- 
vanized for a time in the mediumistic current 
into a state of consciousness and life which 
may be suggested by the first condition of a 
person who, carried into a strange room in 
a state of insensibility during illness, wakes 
up feeble, confused in mind, gazing about with 
a blank feeling of bewilderment, taking in im- 
pressions, hearing words addressed to him 
and answering vaguely. Such a state of con- 
sciousness is unassociated with the notions of 



158 The Life Beyond Death 

past and future. It is an automatic con- 
sciousness, derived from the medium." 

Another writer on the subject says of these 
** Astral shells:'' ** These remnants of the 
Astral bodies so discarded and disintegrating 
are not in any way related to the souls which 
formerly inhabited them. They are mere 
shells, without soul or mind, and yet preserv- 
ing a slight degree of vitality. They are 
Astral corpses, just as much a corpse as is 
the discarded physical body. But, just as 
the physical corpse may be aroused into ap- 
parent life activity by a strong galvanic cur- 
rent, and will roll its eyes, move its limbs, 
and even utter groans — so may these Astral 
corpses be galvanized by the vitality of a 
medium (unconsciously by the latter), if the 
conditions be favorable, and may be material- 
ized so as to appear as a shadowy form, act- 
ing, moving, and even speaking, the only 
mind in it, however, being supplied by that 
of the medium or the persons present at the 
seance. ' ' 

The careful student of occultism will find 
in the works of all of the best authorities 
many warnings against the confounding of 
the phenomena related to these ** Astral 



Astral Shells 159 

shells," with that refering to actual commu- 
nication between disembodied souls and 
those in the flesh. But the general public, 
not being informed, is very apt to fall into 
the error of supposing that this class of psy- 
chic phenomena is a manifestation of ** spirit 
return,'' and the cause of rational spirit- 
ualism has been very much injured in this 
way. It is a ghastly mockery to have these 
disintegrating ^^ Astral shells," galvanized 
temporarily into life by the vitality and 
minds of a medium (consciously or other- 
wise), and to have them mistaken for the 
souls of departed friends and relatives. And 
yet this terrible experience has been the lot 
of many earnest investigators of pyschic 
phenomena, and by many persons whose love 
has prompted them to seek to communicate 
once more with their loved ones. It would 
seem that there is much need for true occult 
knowledge on the part of the public, in these 
days when so many are dabbling in psychic 
research, and producing ^ychic phenomena 
the nature and character of which they do not 
understand. 

We trust that nothing we have said in this, 
or the preceding chapters, will be taken as an 



160 The Life Beyond Death 

attack upon modern spiritualism in the West- 
ern world. We have no such intention, and 
no such feeling. We realize that through the 
channel of modern spiritualism many earnest 
souls have been brought to a realization of 
the higher spiritual truths, and have been led 
to the door of the higher occult understand- 
ing. In fact, modern spiritualism to-day is 
concerning itself comparatively little with 
** phenomena, '' but, instead, is striving to un- 
fold the truths of the life on the higher 
spheres of being and existence of the soul. 
But following on the outskirts of the move- 
ment are many to whom only phenomena of 
the most sensational character appeals — it 
is for these that this warning is intended. 
And, in the same manner, for those who are 
following idly after the ** psychic research'' 
movement, being attracted thereto by love 
of novelty and hope of excitement. We would 
warn both of these classes of investigators 
that in opening the doors of the minds and 
souls to lower Astral influences, they are run- 
ning great risks. There are swamps and 
quagmires of the Astral world into which the 
unwary feet are apt to sink. Therefore we say 
** BEWARE OF THE LOWER ASTRAL 



Astral Shells 161 

VIBEATIONS.'' Keep the mind and soul ^^ 
centered on the higher truths, and resist the ] 
temptation to dabble in the phenomena of the \ 
lower states. There is no satisfaction in the j 
Moon phase of occultism, and great dangers 
are often encountered — turn your face toward 
the SUN! Live on the spiritual Heights — 
beware of the miasmatic swamps and mala- 
rial quagmires on the lowlands of psychism. 
These warnings cannot be too often repeated 
by those having the interest of the race at 
heart. 



CHAPTEE XVIII 
THE SECOND SOUL-SLEEP 

One of the many facts which are impressed 
upon the minds of the student of the occult 
is that which illustrates the principle that 
Nature is consistent and uniform in her 
methods. On the various planes of being, 
Nature has a few fundamental methods or 
habits of manifestation which the student 
soon learns to look for in his investigations, 
and which he always finds if he continues his 
search sufficiently long and with sufficient 
care and watchfulness. 

One of these constant methods of habits of 
Nature is that by which she always inter- 
poses a period of rest, pause, sleep, or recu- 
peration between the end of one period of 
activity and the beginning of another. On 
the physical plane we have many instances of 
this, from the momentary pause of the pen- 
dulum between its forward and backward 
swing; the pause between the inhalation and 
exhalation of the breath; the sleep between 
162 



The Second Soul-Sleep 163 

the close of one day and the beginning of 
another; the period of rest of the unborn 
child between its formative period and its 
birth into the world, etc. 

In the Astral world we find the same phe- 
nomenon in the soul-slumber which occurs 
between that which we call Death and the 
beginning of the new existence on the Astral 
Plane. And, reasoning from analogy, we 
might naturally expect to be informed that a 
similar phase or period exists between the 
close of the activities of the soul on the Astral 
Plane and its passing on to reincarnation or 
to higher spheres of spiritual life. And, 
indeed, such a phase or period does exist, and 
forms a very distinct feature of the souPs 
existence on *Hhe other side.'' Such phase 
or period is known to occultists as the 
** second soul-sleep,'' or slumber. 

The second soul-sleep is preceded by a 
transition state of gradually declining activ- 
ity and consciousness, and a corresponding 
desire for rest on the part of the soul. The 
natural processes on the Astral Plane near- 
ing their close, the soul begins to experience 
a feeling of lassitude and weariness, and 
instinctively longs for rest and repose. It 



164 The Life Beyond Death 

finds that it has lived out the greater part of 
its desires, ambitions, and ideals, and in 
many cases has also out-lived them. There 
comes to it that wistful feeling of having ful- 
filled the purpose of its destiny, and a pre- 
monition of the coming of some newer phase 
of existence. The soul does not feel pain at 
the approach of the second soul-sleep, but, 
on the contrary, experiences satisfaction and 
happiness as the coming of something which 
promises rest and recuperation. Like the 
weary traveller who has climbed the moun- 
tain paths, and has delighted in the expe- 
riences of the journey, the soul feels that it 
has well earned a restful repose, and, like that 
traveller, it looks forward to the same with 
longing and desire. 

' The soul may have passed but a few years, 
or perhaps a hundred or a thousand years, of 
earth-time, on the Astral Plane, according 
to its degree of development and unf aldment. 
But, be its stay short or long, the feeling of 
weariness reaches it at last, and, like many 
aged persons in earth-life, it feels that **my. 
work is over — let me pass on, let me pass 
on.'' Sooner or later, the soul feels a desire 
to gain new experience, and to manifest in a 



The Second Soul-Sleep 165 

new life some of the advancement which has 
come to it by reason of its unfoldment on the 
Astral Plane. And, from these reasons, and 
also from the attraction of the desires which 
have been smouldering there, not lived out or 
cast off; or, possibly influenced by the fact 
that some loved soul, on a lower plane, is 
ready to incarnate, and wishing to be with 
that soul (which is also a form of desire) the 
soul falls into a current sweeping toward re- 
birth and the selection of proper parents and 
advantageous circumstances and surround- 
ings. In consequence thereof it again falls 
into a state of soul-slumber, gradually, and so 
when its time comes it ** dies'' on the Astral 
Plane, as it did before on the material plane, 
and passes forward toward re-birth on earth. 
But, strictly speaking, the soul continues 
in a condition of partial slumber even after 
it has been re-born on earth-life, for it does 
not lat once wake up in the body of the new- 
born child, in which form it has reincarnated. 
On the contrary, it awakens gradually during 
the early childhood and youth, of the child. 
This is a most interesting fact of occult 
science, and one that is but little known even 
to many careful students. We have spoken 



166 The Life Beyond Death 

of it as follows, in a previous work : ** A soul 
does not fully awaken from its second soul- 
slumber immediately upon re-birth, but 
exists in a dream-like state during the days 
of infancy, its gradual awakening being 
evidenced by the growing intelligence of the 
babe, the brain of the child keeping pace with 
the demands made upon it. In some cases, 
however, the awakening is premature, and 
we s*ee cases of prodigies, child-geniuses, etc., 
but such cases are more or less abnormal and 
unhealthy. Occasionally, the dreaming soul 
in the child half-wakes, and startles us by 
some profound observation, or mature re- 
mark or conduct. . . . The rare instances 
of precocious children and infant genius, are 
illustrations of cases in which the awakening 
has been more than ordinarily rapid. On the 
other hand, cases are known where the soul 
does not awaken as rapidly as the average, 
and the result is that the person does not 
show signs of full intellectual activity until 
nearly middle-age. Cases are known where 
men seem to *wake up' when they are forty 
years of age, or even older, and then take on 
freshened activity and energy, surprising 
those who had known them before. ' ' 



The Second Soul-Sleep 167 

But we are principally concerned now with 
the earlier stages of the second soul-slumber 
— the stages which are passed on the Astral 
Plane. In these early stages, the slumbering 
soul undergoes a peculiar stage of what might 
be called *^ spiritual digestion and assimila- 
tion." Just as, in its first soul-slumber, the 
soul digested the fruits of its earth-life and 
assimilated the lessons and experiences 
thereof, so in this second slumber the soul 
digests and assimilates the wonderful experi- 
ences of the Astral. For, be it remembered, 
the period on the Astral has been not only 
one of retrospect on the one hand, and mani- 
festation of latent powers, on the other. It 
has also been a period of reconstruction and 
unfoldment. 

Many things have been lived-out and out- 
lived on the Astral, and the soul leaves the 
Astral a far different entity from that which 
entered it. But, and remember this also, the 
change is always for the better. Many unde- 
sirable characteristics have been burned 
away by the fires of repentance and remorse, 
and many desirable characteristics have been 
unfolded in the rich spiritual soil of the 
higher planes, aided by the Sun of Spirit 



168 The Life Beyond Death 

wMch envelopes the soul on the higher 
planes. But, there is still needed a process 
of ^' stock taking,'' readjustment of mental 
conditions, and spiritual preparation for a 
new life — and this is supplied during the 
early stages of the second soul-slumher. 

Just as the child, or the adult, receives the 
energy necessary for the work of the new 
day, when it is wrapped in sleep at the close 
of the old day, so does the sleeping soul re- 
ceive energy from the One Supply, that it 
may face the new life with vigor and power. 
We do not go into the details of this recuper- 
ative work at this place, as we wish to avoid 
all appearance of technicality. Enough to 
say that the soul receives a fresh impetus of 
energy, and is also given the ^* psychic pat- 
tern" of its new physical hody, during the 
second soul-slumber. It is also allowed to 
experience the attractive power of its Karmic 
ties, which leads it into the channel of re- 
birth in accordance with the character of its 
nature — ^^like attracts like," is the axiom 
which expresses the processes. 
* Each soul goes to where it belongs by 
reason of what it is. It is not subject to the 
arbitrary dictates of any being in heaven or 



The Second Soul-Sleep 169 

in earth, but the absolutely just and equitable 
law of Karma operates in every case. There 
is no favoritism, nor is there the slightest 
chance of even the faintest injustice being 
the fate of any soul, no matter how humble or 
lowly it may be. The lowest as well as the 
highest comes under the same law, for all 
are children of the same parent — all little 
children in the kindergarten of the Absolute. 
All are on The Path, whether they know it or 
not — and their ignorance is not counted 
against them in the reckoning. 

In the last chapter of this book, we shall 
speak of a class of souls that rise above 
further reincarnation in earth-life, and 
ascend to planes and stages of existence far 
above anything which the earth can offer. 
We mention them here merely to say that 
even such souls must pass through the second 
soul-slumber of the Astral Plane before they 
can proceed further. In such cases they lose 
in thfeir sleep all that is left of the confining 
sheaths of earth-desire, and throw aside all 
the fruits of earth action except that which is 
called Liberation and Freedom. Such souls 
never again awaken on earth, nor do they 
ever return thereto, unless, perchance, they 



170 The Life Beyond Death 

voluntarily revisit earth in after ages as 
great teachers or leaders. Such have worn 
the garb of men, now and then throughout 
the ages, but have always been far more than 
men in all but form. There are planes upon 
planes of existence higher than earth or its 
Astral Plane. Blessed indeed is the soul 
which awakens from the second soul-slumber 
and finds itself in even the most humble of 
these exalted states. Even the wisest sage 
bows his head in reverence at the mention of 
such spheres of existence, which transcend 
even the human imagination. 



CHAPTER XIX 
RE-BIRTH 

In the preceding chapter we have explained 
that the soul, falling into the second sonl- 
slumher, is caught up by the currents of the 
Karmic attraction, and is carried on toward 
re-birth in an environment, and with ties, in 
accordance with the sum of its character and 
desires. As we shall see in the succeeding 
chapter, some souls escape this current of re- 
birth, and are, instead, carried on to higher 
spheres of activity and being. But, by far, 
the great majority of the souls on the Astral 
Plane move forward toward earthly re-birth 
— such being their Karma. 

But here, we must caution the student 
against falling into the far too common error 
of supposing that this Karma is a stern 
something meting out rewards and punish- 
ment according to some established code. 
Instead, Karma is simply the law of spiritual 
cause and effect — we are punished not be- 
cause of our sins, but by them; we are re- 

171 



172 The Life Beyond Death 

warded not because of our good deeds, but 
hy them. In short, our rewards and punish- 
ments arise by the very nature of our char- 
acter, and our character is the sum total of 
our desires. Therefore, DESIEE is the 
motive power of Karma, and, through 
Karma, of our re-births. 

To many, it seems as if re-birth upon earth 
is something forced upon the soul in spite 
of its desires. The very opposite is true, for 
the sum of the desires of the soul constitute 
the very actual motive power leading to the 
re-birth. 

Those who are re-born on earth are not 
re-born against their will or desire. On the 
contrary, they are re-born because they 
actually desire it. They are carried into the 
current of re-birth because their tastes and 
desires have created longings that can be 
satisfied only by renewed life in the flesh. 
Although they are not conscious of it, they 
instinctively place themselves again within 
the operations of the Law of Attraction, and 
are swept on to re-birth, in exactly the 
environment best calculated to enable them 
to live out and outlive these desires — to 
express and exhaust the force of desire. They 



Re-Birth 173 

hunger to satisfy their longings, and, until 
that hunger is appeased, the desires cannot 
be discarded. This does not mean that every 
desire must necessarily be lived out, for it 
happens frequently that new insight and 
experience causes the soul to turn with loath- 
ing from the former object of desire, and the 
desire thus dies a natural death. But so 
long as the desire remains alive it tends to 
attract the soul toward objects and environ- 
ment which is likely to satisfy it. This is 
true of the soul on the Astral Plane, as well 
as in earth life. Desire is always the great 
motive power of the soul in determining re- 
birth. 

The soul, preserving its desire for material 
things — the things of flesh and the material 
life — and not being able to divorce itself 
from these things, will naturally fall into the 
current of re-birth which will lead it toward 
conditions in which these desires will flourish 
and (become manifest. It is only when the 
soul, by means of many earth-lives, begins to 
see the worthlessness and illusory nature of 
earthly desires, that it begins to become 
attracted by the things of the life of its 
higher nature, and, escaping the flowing cur- 



174 The Life Beyond Death 

rents of earthly re-birth, it rises above them 
and is carried to higher spheres. 

The average person, after years of earthly 
experience, is apt to say that he or she has no 
more desire for earth life, and that his or 
her only desire is to leave the same behind 
forever. These persons are perfectly sincere 
in their statements and beliefs, but a glance 
into their inmost soul would reveal an en- 
tirely different state of affairs. They are 
not, as a rule, really tired of earth-life, but 
merely of the particular hind of earth life 
which they have experienced during that 
incarnation. They have discovered the il- 
lusory nature of a certain set of earthly 
experiences, and feel disgusted at the same. 
But, they are still full of another set of 
desires, and of hunger for another set of 
experiences on earth. They have failed to 
find happiness or satisfaction in their own 
experience, but they will admit, if they are 
honest with themselves, that IF they could 
have had things *^so and so,*' instead of *Hhis 
and thus, ' ' they would have found happiness 
and satisfaction. The *4f*' may have been 
satisfied love, wealth, fame, gratified ambi- 
tion, success of various kinds, etc. — but, be it 



Re-Birth 175 

what it may, the **if " is nearly always there, 
and that **IF'' really is the seed of their 
remaining desires. And the longing for that 
*4f '' is really the motive for the re-birth. 

Very few persons would care to live over 
their earth life, according to their own state- 
ments — and they are honest enough in the 
statement. But, like old Omar they would 
be perfectly willing to remake the world 
according to their heart's desire — and then 
live the earth life. Do you see what we mean? 
It is not earth life that is distasteful to them, 
but merely the particular experiences of 
earth-life which are disdained. Give to the 
average man and woman youth, health, 
wealth, talent, and love, and they will be very 
willing to begin the round of earth life 
afresh. It is only the absence of, or failure 
in, these or similar things, which causes them 
to feel that life is a failure — a thing to be 
joyfully left behind. 

The soul, in its sojourn on the Astral is 
rested, refreshed and reinvigorated. It has 
forgotten the weariness of life which it had 
experienced during the previous incarnation. 
It is again young, hopeful, vigorous, and 
ambitious. It feels within itself the call to 



176 The Life Beyond Death 

action — the urge of unfulfilled desires, 
aspirations, and ambitions — and it readily 
falls into the currents which lead it to the 
scene of action in which these desires may be 
manifested. 

We have many instances of this change of 
feeling in earth-life. We feel tired, dis- 
couraged, nay, even disgusted, with our 
earthly affairs, at the close of the day, the 
year, or the exciting period. But rest, sleep, 
change of scene, and the influx of new impres- 
sions, make a change, and before long we are 
filled with longing for new activities and 
action. The majority of persons are not 
really tired of life, or disgusted with the 
things of life. They are merely experiencing 
the race impulse toward *^ something else, 
some other place'' — a change of scene and 
occupation would work a speedy cure for 
them. They are not world weary — they are 
merely mentally and emotionally tired. And 
thus it is with the tired soul. Change its 
place of abode to the Astral, and give it the 
Elixir of Life — and it is ready for another 
part to play in the Drama of Life. 

Another point upon which there is much 
misunderstanding is the matter of the uncon- 



Re-Birth 177 

sciousness of the soul in the matter of choice 
of th-e environment of the new birth. It is 
true that in souls of low development, the 
process is almost wholly instinctive, and 
there is practically no conscious realization 
or choice in the matter. But when the soul 
begins to develop and unfold in spiritual 
knowledge, it begins to have spiritual insight 
and consciousness, and in many cases it sees 
dimly as in a dream, (during the second soul- 
slumber) the conditions toward which it is 
being drawn, and often exercises a decided 
choice. In the case of a strong personality, 
provided the spiritual development is there, 
there is often more than a dreamlike choice, 
for such a soul does much to *^make circum- 
stances'* for itself in its new birth, always 
within the limitations of its Karma, of 
course. 

Another point, which should be cleared up, 
is that regarding the character of the desires 
which serve as the motive power for re-birth. 
It is not meant that these desires are neces- 
sarily low or unworthy desires or longings. 
On the contrary, they may be of the highest 
character, and might be more properly styled 
aspirations, ambitions, or high aims, but the 



178 The Life Beyond Death 

principle of desire is in them all. Desires, 
high and low, are the seeds of action. And 
the impulse toward action is always the dis- 
tinguishing feature of desire. Desire always 
wants to have things, or to do things, or to 
be things. Love, even of the most unselfish 
kind, is a form of desire ; so is aspiration of 
the noblest kind. A desire to benefit others 
is as much a desire as its opposite. In fact, 
many unselfish souls are drawn back into re- 
birth simply by the insistent aspirations to 
accomplish some great work for the race, or 
to serve others, or to fulfill some duty in- 
spired by love. But, high or low, if these 
desires are connected in any way with the 
things of earth, they are re-birth motives and 
rudders. 

But, in conclusion, let us say that no soul 
which does not in its inmost soul desire re- 
birth on earth will ever be so re-born. Such 
a soul is attracted toward other spheres, 
where the attractions of earth exist not. Its 
Karma carries it away from earth — ^not 
toward it. But this is the condition of but 
few, although, little by little, every soul will 
experience it in the aeons to come. For all 
are on The Path, and spiritual evolution 



Re-Birth 179 

moves surely though slowly. Those who are 
interested in this higher life of the soul are 
invited to read the next, the last, chapter. 
If its words appeal to you, you have already 
taken the first steps toward the attainment. 



CHAPTER XX 
BEYOND REINCARNATION 

Those who imagine that the Yogi Phil- 
osophy teaches that before the soul there is 
an endless chain of earthly re-births, or 
series of reincarnations, have failed to grasp 
the real spirit of the teaching. When it is 
remembered that the earth is but one of a 
countless number of preparatory worlds, 
having its beginning in time and its ending in 
time, the folly of such a doctrine becomes 
apparent. The earth is but one of the many 
schools, which have been from time to time 
formed in the Cosmos, and which, at the best, 
are but mere lower grade abodes. The soul 
of man will persist aeons after this earth, 
and millions of others like it, will have van- 
ished into the ether of space from which it 
originally emerged. To assign to earth-life 
any such importance in the Cosmic order is 
contrary to the teachings of the wise. 

Moreover, it is a false teaching which holds 
that even in the present era and phase of the 
180 



Re-Birth 181 

soul's existence the soul can progress no 
further than earthly incarnation. Even 
though the majority of the race must undergo 
many earthly incarnations before freedom 
and liberation is found, still it is equally true 
that when a soul reaches the stage of spirit- 
ual development in which the ties of earth- 
life no longer bind it, then it is impossible 
that such a soul can be held to the round of 
earthly incarnation for even a moment of 
time. 

There are many souls which are now on 
the Astral Plane, undergoing the final stages 
of the casting off of the earthly bonds. And 
there are many souls now in earth-life which 
will never again return to earth, but which, 
after their next sojourn on the Astral Plane, 
will rise to the higher planes of existence, 
leaving the earth and all earthly things be- 
hind forever. Moreover, there are to-day, 
on earth, thousands of souls which are well 
oh the way to freedom, and which will have 
but one more earth-life to undergo — and 
that one life will be passed in an exalted state 
of understanding and wisdom. At the 
present time we are nearing the end of a 
cycle in which a very great number of souls 



182 The Life Beyond Death 

are preparing for their upward flight, and 
many who read these lines may be well 
advanced in that cyclic movement. 

It would be the veriest folly for human pen 
to attempt to picture the nature of the exist- 
ence on the higher spheres — even those 
spheres only one grade higher than the earth. 
For there are no words which would convey 
the meaning — no mental concepts which 
would embody the idea. Nay, more, the 
majority of the race have not even the mental 
machinery which would enable them to even 
think of the nature of such a life. The aver- 
age human mind cannot begin to think even 
of the middle planes of the Astral, and the 
concept of the higher Astral is far beyond 
them. What then must be their position 
regarding the thought of realms of being to 
which even the highest Astral planes are but 
as dung-hills compared with the world's 
greatest palaces I Enough to know that 
there exists an infinite scale of being, com- 
posed of realm after realm, ever rising 
higher and higher and higher — and that the 
soul is destined to move on and on and on 
toward the Infinite. 

Escape from the round of earthly reincar- 



Beyond Reincarnation 183 

nation is possible when the soul learns the 
truth regarding its own nature and its rela- 
tion to the Whole. When it perceives the 
illusory nature of the phenomenal universe, 
and realizes that the spiritual world is the 
only real one, then do the ties of the material 
life begin to slip away, and the soul begins to 
struggle from its confining bonds. This liber- 
ation is the great end aimed at in the Yogi 
Philosophy. This is the reason, end, and 
aim, of Yoga. Some attain it by faithful 
works; others by love of the divine and of 
the divine fragment in their fellow human 
beings ; others by the use of the intellect and 
the attainment of wisdom; others by devel- 
opment of the intuitive faculties ; but all these 
are but different roads leading to the same 
end. When the nature of earthly things is 
realized, they lose their hold upon the human 
soul. Desire then dies away, and the soul is 
liberated and attains spiritual freedom. 
Loosened from the attraction of earth, the 
soul takes higher flights, and soars to the 
higher regions of being. 

The philosophies of the Orient are filled 
with this idea. Under various guises it 
appears. To the initiated occultist the sacred 



184 The Life Beyond Death 

teachings of the world — of all religions — are 
seen to have their esoteric side. And the 
spirit of the esoteric teaching is always 
Liberation. As we write these words, our 
eyes fall upon a book lying on our table — a 
little story of the East, told by a Western 
writer. This writer has caught the spirit of 
the East and expresses it well. Listen to his 
words, and see how true they are to the 
spirit of the teaching: 

^'The object of the Sage, according to the 
old Hindoo doctrine, is to become absolute 
master of himself (jitama), to render him- 
self completely superior, or rather indifferent 
to the ^attachment' of all mundane clogs. The 
ordinary mortal is a prisoner, tied, bound in 
bondage, or attached {sahta), to and by the 
objects of delusion and sense. Whoever aims 
at emancipation must first, by a long and 
strenuous course of penance and austerity, 
sever these attachments, till even though he 
still remains among them, they run off him 
like water from a duck ; and he goes on living, 
according to the classic formula, like a wheel 
that continues to revolve when the original 
impetus has ceased; or like a branch that 
goes on swaying after the departure of the 




Beyond Reincarnation 185 

•.^ bird. He is awake, as opposed to those who 
^^| still remain blinded by illusion ; he is free, as 
Mj contrasted with the bound." 
** "^ The above writer, however, has erred when 
he speaks of the **long and strenuous course 
of penance and austerity," necessary to sever 
the material attachments. The best author- 
ities frown upon these ascetic practices and 
austerities, and do not encourage them. The 
true practice is that of the attainment of wis- 
dom, and the opening of the heart to the 
inflow of the Divine Wisdom which comes in 
the form of Intuition. It needs but to per- 
ceive the real nature of material things in 
order to lose desire for them; therefore 
Knowledge is the great Liberator. It is true 
that great unselfish love (Bhakti Yoga) will 
cause the scales to fall from the eyes of the 
soul; it is likewise true that faithful works 
and duty performed without hope of reward 
(Karma Yoga), will cause the eyes to see 
clearly ; but the greatest of all Yoga is Gnani 
Yoga, the Way of Wisdom. 

To those who yearn for release, we recom- 
mend a careful study of the Yogi Philosophy, 
or any of the other great forms of the Wis- 
dom-Eeligion, and the careful following of 



186 The Life Beyond Death 

the Life of the Spirit which is common to all 
religions, rightly understood. 

We think that the best little guide on The 
Path in the English language, is that little 
manual ^^ Light on the Path," which is 
founded on occult axioms current even in 
ancient Atlantis. In this valuable little man- 
ual are to be found **The Eules which are 
written on the Walls of the Hall of Learn- 
ing," by the *^ Rulers of the Golden Gate." 
As a writer has said: **What Parsifal is to 
lovers of music, that * Light on the Path' is 
to aspiring souls — a never-ending source of 
inspiration and wonder." The following 
axioms, taken from its pages, give the key- 
note, when rightly understood — the balance 
of the manual is but an explanation of the 
axioms : 

I. Kill out ambition. 

II. Kill out desire of life. 

III. Kill out desire of comfort. 

rV. Kill out all sense of separateness. 

V. Kill out desire for sensation. 

VI. Kill out the hunger for growth. 

Vn. Desire only that which is within 
you. 



Beyond Reincarnation 187 

VIII. Desire only that which is beyond 
you. 

IX. Desire only that which is unat- 
tainable. 

X. Desire power ardently. 

XI. Desire peace fervently. 

XII. Desire possessions above all. 

XIII. Seek out the way. 

XIV. Seek the way by retreating within. 
XV. Seek the way by advancing boldly 

without. 

XVI. Stand aside in the coming battle; 
and though thou fightest, be not thou the 
warrior. 

XVII. Look for the warrior, and let him 
fight in thee. 

XVIII. Take his orders for battle, and 
obey him. 

XIX. Listen to the song of life. 
XX. Store in your memory the melody 
you hear. 

XXI. Learn from it the lesson of 
harmony. 

XXII. Eegard earnestly all the life that 
surrounds you. 

XXIII. Learn to look intelligently into the 
hearts of men. 



188 The Life Beyond Death 

XIX. Eegard most earnestly your own 
heart. 

XX. Inquire of the earth, the air, and 
the water, of the secrets they hold for you. 

XXI. Inquire of the holy ones of the 
earth, of the secrets they hold for you. 

XXII. Inquire of the inmost, the one, of 
its final secret, which it holds for you 
throughout the ages. 

XXIII. Hold fast to that which has neither 
substance nor existence. 
XXVI. Listen only to the voice which is 
soundless. 

XXV. Look only on that which is invisible 
alike to the inner and the outer sense. * ' 

These axioms have seven several and dis- 
tinct meanings, superimposed one upon the 
other, and which are uncovered only by the 
unveiling of the eyes of the soul as it unfolds. 
Blessed is he who is able to comprehend even 
the first set of meanings, for he is on The 
Way. 

The commentor upon these axioms, in the 
little manual, gives the following valuable 
advice to those who seek out the Way of 
Liberation and Peace : 

*^Seek in the heart the source of evil, and 



Beyond Reincarnation 189 

expunge it. It lives fruitfully in the heart of 
the devoted disciple, as well as in the heart 
of the man of desire. Only the strong can 
kill it out. The weak must wait for its 
growth, its fruition, its death. And it is a 
plant that lives and increases throughout the 
ages. It flowers when the man has accumu- 
lated unto himself innumerable existences. 
He who will enter upon the path of power 
must tear this thing out of his heart. And 
then the heart will bleed, and the whole life 
of the man seem to be utterly dissolved. This 
ordeal must be endured: it may come at the 
first step of the perilous ladder which leads 
to the path of life : it may not come until the 
last. But, disciple, remember that it has to 
be endured, and fasten the energies of your 
soul upon the task. Live neither in the 
present nor the future, but in the eternal. 
This giant weed cannot flower there : this blot 
upon existence is wiped out by the very at- 
mosphere of eternal thought." 

The same commentor utters the following 
additional advice: 

**Look for the flower to bloom in the silence 
that follows the storm ; not till then. It shall 
grow, it will shoot up, it will make branches 



190 The Life Beyond Death 

and leaves and form buds, while the storm 
continues, while the battle lasts. But not till 
the harassed spirit. And in the deep silence, 
and melted — not until it is held by the divine 
fragment which has created it, as a mere sub- 
ject for grave experiment and experience — 
not until the whole nature has yielded, and 
become subject unto its higher self, can the 
bloom open. Then will come a calm such as 
comes in a tropical country after a heavy 
rain, when Nature works so swiftly that one 
may see her action. Such a calm will come to 
the mysterious even will occur which will 
the whole personality of the man is dissolved 
prove that the way has been found. Call it by 
what name you will ; it is a voice that speaks 
where there is none to speak; it is a mes- 
senger that comes, — a messenger without 
form of substance, — or it is the flower of the 
soul that has opened. It cannot be described 
by any metaphor. But it can be felt after, 
looked for, and desired, even amid the raging 
of the storm. The silence may last a moment 
of time, or it may last a thousand years, but it 
will end. Yet you will carry its strength 
with you. Again and again the battle must 



Beyond Reincarnation 191 

be fought and won. It is only for an interval 
that nature can be still. ^' 

In conclusion, let us again quote from the 
writer of the words above quoted — words also 
inspired by a higher source of authority and 
wisdom : 

^^The Thkee Truths." 

** There are three truths which are abso- 
lute, and which cannot be lost, but yet may 
remain silent for lack of speech: (I) The 
soul of man is immortal, and its future is the 
future of a thing whose growth and splendor 
have no limit. (II) The principle which 
gives life dwells in us, and without us, is un- 
dying and eternally beneficent, is not heard 
or seen or felt, but is perceived by the man 
who desires perception. (Ill) Each man is 
his own absolute law-giver, the dispenser of 
glory or gloom to himself, the decreer of his 
life, his reward, his punishment. These 
truths, which are as great as is life itself, 
are as simple as the simplest mind of man. 
Feed the hungry with them. ' ' 

And now, friend and reader, we leave you 
once more. We trust that what we have said 
will prove to be as the seeds of future trees 



192 The Life Beyond Death 

of knowledge within you. For this is the 
most that the teacher may hope to do — to 
plant seeds. We trust that we have at least 
brought you to the doors of the perception 
of the truth that there is no Death — that what 
we call Death is but *Hhe other side'' of Life, 
and one with it. May your own spiritual eyes 
become opened, that you may perceive these 
truths for yourself, and through your own 
experience. And now, once more, good 
student, we say to thee : 



Peace Be Unto Thee! 



The End. 



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